More than 50 women have come forward accusing the 78-year-old comedian of sexual assault or misconduct, and now, Bill Cosby is suing seven of those women for defamation, his lawyer Monique Pressley revealed via Twitter on Monday, Dec. 14. The star of The Cosby Show filed the lawsuit against Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis, and Angela Leslie.
As noted in the copy of the lawsuit posted below, Cosby claims these seven women made "malicious, opportunistic and false and defamatory accusations of sexual misconduct against him" and that "he neither drugged nor sexually assaulted the defendants." Cosby also alleges the defendants "knowingly published false statements and accusations." He is asking the federal court to "provide him relief from the defendants' intentional campaign to assassinate his character for their own financial gain" in the form of compensatory and punitive damages. He also wants each defendant to "publically [sic] retract and correct their defamatory statements."
Cosby's lawsuit is in response to the defamation lawsuit brought against the actor by these seven defendants in November. As Huffington Post reports, the actor's countersuit comes after a Massachusetts federal judge refused to throw out the seven defendants' lawsuit in October.
In November 2014, Cosby's former lawyer Marty Singer released the following statement in regards to the claims of sexual assault:
Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true. Mr. Cosby does not intend to dignify these allegations with any comment. He would like to thank all his fans for the outpouring of support and assure them that, at age 77, he is doing his best work. There will be no further statement from Mr. Cosby or any of his representatives.
Additionally, in July 2015 the Associated Press obtained a 2005 deposition showing Cosby admitting to obtaining Quaaludes to give to women with whom he wanted to have sex. At the time, his reps responded as follows:
The only reason Mr. Cosby settled [the case from which the deposition came] was because it would have been embarrassing in those days to put all those women on the stand and his family had no clue. That would have been very hurtful.
