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Nicki Minaj has responded to Jennifer Hough’s claims that she tried to intimidate and bribe her into recanting her rape allegations against her husband, Kenneth Petty. According to legal documents, the “Chun Li” rapper said she never asked Hough to rescind her accusations and didn’t threaten to cause her any harm. Minaj did say that an associate of hers set up a call between she and Hough but denied offering her up to $500,000 to say the 1994 rape didn’t happen.
“During the call, I never asked her to change her story; I never offered her any money in return for a statement, and I did not threaten her with any type of harm if she chose not to provide a statement,” Minaj said in a statement according to AllHipHop.
“In fact, I emphatically told her that I did not want her to lie about anything and to tell the truth about what she had just revealed to me only if she was comfortable with doing so.”
While on the call, Minaj said that Hough told her, “I’m not saying it didn’t happen, but maybe it was just a misunderstanding.”
“I could not believe what I had just heard,” Minaj said in the legal docs. “I could not believe that it was so easy for this woman to imply that she may have exaggerated or lied after how much this man had suffered through as such a young boy.”
The 39-year-old rapper added that Hough implied that she was open to being paid off.
Hough filed a $20 million lawsuit against Minaj and Petty and claimed that due to their alleged efforts to intimidate her, she has had to move three times, change her phone number numerous times and her mental health has declined. In her lawsuit, Hough also claimed that Minaj is a member of the Bloods gang, something Minaj also denied in her statement. Minaj and Petty traveled to their hometown of Queens, New York back in October of 2021 and took a picture with acquaintances and fans who threw up gang signs. Hough is using this to prove that Minaj is a gang member.
“I was quickly surrounded by my fans, particularly in this instance because my pink Rolls Royce was in the direct sightline of apartment buildings across the street from where I had stopped,” Minaj explained. “While my husband and I recognized a few friends and acquaintances from the neighborhood that night, including Rico Danna, an artist whom I intend to sign to my label, none of them belong to any gang. Further, we did not plan to meet anyone in advance because we had not planned to stop there. Once I came out of the car, the news traveled quickly, and people just showed up. Neither I, my husband, nor anyone I knew made any “gang” signs that night. I did not mention [Hough] or this case that night. Nor did I hear anyone, including my husband, mention [Hough] or this case that night.”
