Source: Tiffany Rose / Getty
As Diddy continues to fight sexual assault allegations, another Hip-Hop mogul is doing the same.
Def Jam cofounder Russell Simmons recently sat down for an episode of In-Depth with Graham Bensinger to talk about his mounting assault claims, stemming from 2017, when he initially took a step back from the public spotlight.
From his Bali residence, he denied all the allegations and said he took one lie-detector test per serious accusation, amounting to nine, and passed them all.
“I took nine lie detector tests; people don’t know that. Nine separate — seven from the Chairman of the Polygraph Association. One for each and serious accusation,” said Simmons. “When someone said, for instance, ‘I was violent’ — one person said that — and I’ve never been violent. Took that. And one said I apologized. I never apologized about assaulting anyone. But if two people say it, because one said it, and #metoo, and the second person said it, then I took a test for it.”
One of the issues with the validity of lie detectors is that they’re not 100% accurate. Still, Simmons says the Chairman of the Polygraph Association told him that each test is 94% accurate, and after taking nine, he believes it’s enough proof that he’s innocent.
The sexual assault and misconduct claims –including rape at his apartment and assault in the workplace– have begun to grow to more than a dozen, with Simmons only admitting that he engaged in “inappropriate conduct.”
Simmons says that evidence of the polygraphs is available for public consumption, but no media outlets would cover it because the running narrative is that “we don’t wanna go backward, we wanna believe women.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Simmons speaks on the growing rift between him and his ex-wife Kimora Lee.
“I must’ve been a shit partner, from what I hear. No. I was very generous and tried to be supportive,” he said. “We were together 15 years, Kimora and I. And for eight years, we were married. And together for seven, before that. And then, I was best friends with Kimora throughout the entire raising of my children.”
He alleges that his ex-wife stole almost $800 million worth of stock from him.
“She gave what is now, today, based on the value of the stock, $800 million, to the government illegally, and now I’m fighting to get my half of it back,” he added.
Social media doesn’t care about his money and is more concerned that he appears to be a serial sexual harasser. See the reactions below.
