Artist News Legal

Dr Luke wants to question Lady Gaga over Kesha case

By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 31 July 2017

Lady Gaga is pushing back against attempts by producer Dr Luke to force her to provide a deposition in relation to his defamation lawsuit against Kesha.

As much previously reported, Kesha Sebert and her one time collaborator Lukasz Gottwald have been involved in a long-running multi-layered legal battle that at one point involved litigation in three separate US states. She accuses him of rape, while he claims she made up those allegations in a bid to force his hand in a contract dispute. Among the various lawsuits, Gottwald has sued Sebert for defamation.

It’s in relation to that lawsuit that lawyers working for Gottwald want to question Lady Gaga. Because, they argue, Kesha has spoken to her fellow pop star about her allegations, in particular during a text message conversation in 2013. Lady Gaga has already provided a copy of that text message back and forth, but heavily redacted.

Lawyers working for the producer say that they have been trying to arrange a deposition – where they could question Lady Gaga about Kesha’s allegations under oath – for some time, but that she has so far resisted taking part voluntarily citing her busy schedule. To this end, they are now seeking a court order to force the star to comply.

A spokesperson for Dr Luke told CMU on Saturday: “In connection with Dr Luke’s defamation claims against Kesha, various third parties are being deposed by both sides, including celebrities. Dr Luke’s counsel served a subpoena on Lady Gaga because she has relevant information regarding, among other things, false statements about Dr Luke made to her by Kesha. This motion has become necessary because Dr Luke’s counsel has not been able to obtain, despite repeated request, a deposition date from Lady Gaga”.

But reps for Gaga have hit back, arguing that she has already shared everything she knows in relation to this case. A spokesperson told Variety: “As Lady Gaga’s legal team will present to the court, she has provided all of the relevant information in her possession and is at most an ancillary witness in this process. Dr Luke’s team is attempting to manipulate the truth and draw press attention to their case by exaggerating Lady Gaga’s role and falsely accusing her of dodging reasonable requests”.

It’s not the first time Gaga has been caught up in the Kesha v Dr Luke story. In 2014 she told Howard Stern in an interview that she had been raped when she was nineteen. She did not name the perpetrator, but Kesha’s then lawyer Mark Geragos suggested that it was Dr Luke. Gaga denied that this was the case, and the producer then sued the lawyer for defamation. Gaga subsequently spoke out in support of Kesha as her legal battle with Gottwald got more media attention.