Earlier this year, New York Magazine published a haunting feature on 35 of the 50+ women who have, to date, accused comedian Bill Cosby of numerous counts of sexual assault. The piece featured personal accounts from these 35 women, each one detailing the alleged assault committed against her.
Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents over half of the women bringing accusations against Cosby, explained that while the statute of limitations makes it impossible for these women to take legal action against him now, they wanted their stories shared regardless, according to USA Today.
Refinery 29 reported Tuesday that Bill Cosby is filing a defamation suit in the state of Massachusetts against Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, Linda Traitz, Louisa Moritz, Barbara Bowman, Joan Tarshis and Angela Leslie, who have all accused Cosby of sexual assault.
Monique Pressley, Bill Cosby’s lawyer, released a statement Monday on Twitter detailing each count of charges in the defamation suit that the comedian is bringing against the seven women who have accused him of sexual assault.
My statement re today’s lawsuit filed by @BillCosby against all 7 accusers in Massachusetts lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/XRYoV4gXpC
— Monique Pressley (@MoniquePressley) December 14, 2015
Cosby is accusing the women of lying about him for financial gain and engaging “in a campaign to assassinate his reputation and character,” causing lost media partnerships with Netflix and NBC Universal, according to BBC News.
NBC News reports that Pressley has further explained that Cosby wants the women to “publicly retract and correct their defamatory statements.”
NBC News goes on to report that Allred boldly declared that while she is not representing any of the women who are the target of Cosby’s defamation suit, she believes “that in general that such a tactic will not deter courageous women from fighting the battle against him.”
And let’s keep in mind that even if all seven of these women were lying, that still leaves dozens of women whom Cosby doesn’t think he has a case against.