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Here's a closer look at the allegations.
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Jun 22, 2020
Anytime there is a claim of sexual assault, we must take the claim seriously, whether we're fans of the music/art or not. And the claims against Justin Bieber are no exception.
Over the weekend, two women accused the pop star of sexual assault on Twitter. The alleged assaults, which occurred in 2014 and 2015, were described in harrowing detail by the two alleged victims.
Today, after a few days of silence, Bieber has come forward to categorically deny the accusations.
Here's everything we know about the Justin Bieber sexual assault allegations.
The first allegation came from an anonymous account.
On Saturday, June 20th, 2020, a woman who solely went by the name of Danielle came forward with the claims that Bieber assaulted her in Austin, TX, after a music event. Though her tweets were subsequently deleted, another account captured screenshots of her testimony, which you can see below.
“Justin had made me agree to not say anything to anyone, or I can get in serious legal trouble,” Danielle claimed, in part. “He then asked me to join him in bed. That’s when I asked myself, How in the world is this normal?”
Shortly after the first allegation came out, an influencer spoke up about her alleged assault, as well.
Just one day later, on June 21, 2020, a woman by the name of Kadi came forward with her claims of sexual assault against Bieber. She described her alleged assault in a tweet below. After getting "called out" by "Beliebers" — the devoted fans of the "Sorry" singer — she subsequently retweeted a series of tweets which proved that she met Bieber on the date and time she claimed to meet him.
The women have not given comments to the media despite several outlets reaching out.
More than one outlet has reached out to both "Danielle" (who remained anonymous behind a "burner" Twitter account) and Kadi for comment. Neither one has made a statement to the media. However, Kadi has taken to her Twitter to remark that she didn't come forward so Bieber's fans would believe her — she came forward so that people would believe "Danielle" and to understand that Bieber is, indeed, allegedly capable of assault.
In a series of Tweets, Bieber denied the claims against him.
On June 22, 2020, Bieber took to Twitter to address the claims against him. He initially said that he wasn't sure if he was going to address it since he'd been accused of "random things" in the past, but ultimately decided to come forward after speaking with his wife, Hailey Baldwin, and his legal team. He also said that he wanted to collect the facts before making a statement.
Bieber said Selena Gomez was with him at the time of the alleged assault.
"As her story told I did surprise a crowd in Austin at Sxsw where I appeared on stage with my then assistant side stage and sang a few songs. What this person did not know was that I attended that show with my then gf Selena Gomez," he said, before linking to an article that detailed how he dedicated "My Baby" to Gomez, who was in the crowd at the time. He also showed actual receipts detailing that he was a guest first at an Airbnb, then at the Westin Hotel — and that he also stayed there with Selena Gomez. He also said that he "welcomed all the press" to contact the properties in question if needed to verify his story. That went contrary to Danielle's claim that he assaulted her at the Four Seasons Hotel, since he claims he never stayed there.
Bieber has filed a defamation suit.
On Friday, June 26, 2020, Bieber filed a $20 million defamation claim against his accusers. He's seeking $10 million per accuser. According to the documents, Bieber has "indisputable evidence" that the claims made against him are "outrageous." He also claims that the accusers are either working in tandem to bring him down or are one in the same person operating behind multiple Twitter accounts.
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, publicist, and photographer whose work has appeared in Teen Vogue, People, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, BET.com, and more.