Cardi B was awarded an additional $2.8 million on Tuesday by a jury after winning her federal libel case against blogger Tasha K.
The 29-year-old rapper was awarded an additional $1.5 million in punitive damages, plus $1.3 million for her attorney’s fees, according to an article Tuesday by TMZ.
A jury on Monday found Tasha K, real name Latasha Kebe, liable on two counts of slander and one count each of libel and invasion of privacy.
Additional awards: Cardi B,shown last month in Santa Monica, California, was awarded an additional $2.8 million on Tuesday by a jury after winning her federal libel case against blogger Tasha K
Cardi, real name Belcalis Almánzar, was awarded $1 million in general damages by the jury in Georgia on Monday, along with an additional $250,000 for medical expenses.
The 39-year-old blogger was sued by the hitmaker for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress after claiming in videos posted to her YouTube channel that Cardi had once worked as a prostitute and had suffered from drug abuse and sexually transmitted diseases.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, where Latasha lives, and the trial took just over a week before a jury determined that Latasha was liable on the slander, libel and invasion of privacy counts.
Cardi sued the YouTuber back in 2019 for a ‘campaign of slander’ after she refused to take down the offending videos.
Shocking allegations: Latasha K was sued by Cardi in 2019 for YouTube videos falsely alleging that Cardi used cocaine and contracted herpes while working as a prostitute, all claims the rapper disputed in her lawsuit
Among the false claims made were that the superstar rapper had contract herpes and that she regularly used cocaine while working as a prostitute.
‘None of the aforementioned statements about plaintiff are true,’ Cardi’s legal team replied in her lawsuit filing. ‘Plaintiff was never a prostitute or a user of cocaine. Plaintiff has never, and does not now, have herpes, nor has she had herpes outbreaks on her mouth.’
Latasha after the verdict on Monday posted on Twitter: ‘My Husband, Attorney’s, & I fought really hard. I want to thank them for their long hours and sleepless nights. Winos it’s only up from here. See y’all in a few days. Back to work.’
Hard fight: Latasha after the verdict on Monday posted on Twitter: ‘My Husband, Attorney’s, & I fought really hard. I want to thank them for their long hours and sleepless nights. Winos it’s only up from here. See y’all in a few days. Back to work’
She also tweeted on Tuesday that she would speak about the lawsuit on Wednesday, posting: ‘I will be making my FIRST and ONLY statement about the case Wednesday 1/26/22 at 7pm est on my @YouTube channel.’
Latasha’s lawyers, Olga Izmaylova and Sadeer Sabbak, in a statement on Tuesday to The New York Times said they disagreed with the verdict and planned to appeal.
A courtroom observer told Rolling Stone that Cardi on Monday was in the room to witness the verdict and appeared ‘elated’ after winning her case.
Payday: The jury awarded Cardi, seen in December in Miami Beach, Florida, $1 million in general damages and $250K in medical fees on Monday and another $2.8 million on Tuesday
They added that she hugged her lawyers Lisa Fortune Moore and Sarah Matz, before pulling them into a ‘three-way hug.’
Cardi hasn’t yet commented directly on her legal victory, but afterward she posted a throwback photo to her Instagram Stories that appeared to show her with her late maternal grandmother.
‘My queen thank you for hearing my prayers,’ she began her caption. ‘Only you know those nights that I cried to you feeling hopeless and tired even when it seems like I have the world on my hands.’
Family: Cardi didn’t comment on the verdict but shared a photo that appeared to be of her maternal grandmother to Instagram later on Monday and thanked her for ‘hearing my prayers’
Earlier this month, Cardi claimed ‘I wanted to commit suicide over the things’ in her emotional testimony in court.
‘I felt defeated and depressed and I didn’t want to sleep with my husband,’ she said of a period shortly after she and the Migos rapper Offset welcomed their daughter Kulture.
During direct examination by her legal team, she also admitted that she felt as if she ‘didn’t deserve my kid.’
The rapper also blasted Tasha K from the witness stand, saying ‘I felt like only a demon could do that s**t,’ according to TMZ.
The blogger followed Cardi’s 2019 suit with a countersuit alleging that the Bodak Yellow rapper had threatened that gang members would assault her, but a judge later threw out the countersuit.
She also called out Cardi for allegedly calling her a ‘h*e’ and ‘dumb a** b****’ on Instagram.
Dismissed: Latasha K, whom Cardi called a ‘demon’ on the witness stand, filed a countersuit alleging that Cardi threatened to have gang members assault her, but a judge threw it out in 2021