Kevin Hart is being sued for allegedly botching a settlement to clear former friend Jonathan “JT” Jackson of his reputation in connection with the comedian’s sex tape scam scandal.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Jackson accuses the “Get Hard” actor of failing to use “carefully negotiated” and agreed-upon language from their 2021 settlement when he addressed the scandal in an Instagram post that same year, resulting in a $12 million breach of contract lawsuit. The civil suit, which names Hart, Hartbeat LLC and several Does as defendants, also alleges fraud and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
According to the 23-page complaint obtained by The Times on Wednesday, Hart was contractually obligated to use “specific language” under the July 2021 settlement to “publicly exonerate” the Navy veteran, pro bowler and actor who has been embroiled in legal troubles since the scandal.
“The language of Hart’s statements was carefully negotiated and detailed in the contract and was absolutely essential to repairing and rectifying the serious damage to Plaintiff’s reputation caused by Hart’s aggressively promoted and publicized unfounded extortion allegations,” the complaint states.
Jackson, 47, was targeted in January 2018 when Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office investigators raided his home at gunpoint and arrested him and his wife while they were investigating an alleged extortion racket that he believed was started by Hart. Prosecutors eventually dismissed the charges (Jackson sued them in December), but Jackson argued that “his reputation was unfairly tarnished by a series of malicious acts by the defendants,” including when Hart and the Heartbeats released their 2019 Netflix documentary series “Don’t F— This Up.”
The documentary series addressed extortion and alleged that Jackson was involved in creating and distributing a sex tape that showed Hart and a woman, not his wife, being intimate in a Las Vegas hotel room. (Both Jackson and Hart were sued for $60 million by model Montia Sabbagh, who reportedly appeared in the tape with Hart, but the suit was ultimately dismissed and Jackson was cleared of all charges.)
According to the new lawsuit, Jackson did not receive any money from the settlement with Hart because he believed their contract was “not a means to seek compensation but rather a means to discredit Jackson.” Hart’s public statements containing the settlement language were critical to Jackson’s exoneration, and Jackson entered into the agreement “with the expectation that his reputation would finally be restored and that Plaintiff would be able to resume his professional life in good faith,” the lawsuit says.
Jackson argued that Hart had expressly agreed in the written agreement to “dismiss and defend all criminal charges” against Jackson and to make a public statement admitting his innocence. Hart said he was forced to say that the criminal charges against Jackson had been dismissed, that Jackson’s involvement in the extortion conspiracy had been fully disclosed, and that Hart had lost a “cherished friendship” as a result of the legal disaster.
The lawsuit states that Hart was forced to say, “I have lost someone close to me that I loved and still love very much or have a great level of love for, and I am proud to say that all charges against JT Jackson have been dismissed and that he is innocent and has had nothing to do with this matter. This matter that was once so hard to deal with and was so heavy on me and my family is now closed.”
Instead, Hart’s Instagram video from Oct. 27, 2021, “publicly violated” their agreement and “manipulated the story,” the lawsuit said. Hart ultimately said that “JT Jackson was recently acquitted, the charges against him were dismissed, and I can finally talk about things I couldn’t talk about before.” The comedian also said their friendship was “lost” because of the legal proceedings and noted that he was relieved that the legal saga was over. He did not say that Jackson “had nothing to do with it.”
“Hart’s statement differs significantly in several important respects from the agreed language,” Jackson’s attorney, Daniel L. Reback, argues in the lawsuit. “First, Hart’s stipulated language explicitly called for ‘all charges against (Jackson) to be dismissed and that he is innocent and has nothing to do with this case.’ However, Hart’s actual statement contains no explicit declaration of plaintiff’s innocence or intolerance. Furthermore, while Hart’s agreed statement acknowledged the significant impact of the case on her legal affairs, including the loss of a cherished friendship, Hart’s actual statement focuses solely on Hart himself ‘moving on’ and does not directly acknowledge the substantial personal and professional harm plaintiffs have incurred as set forth in the agreement.”
In addition to the $12 million, Jackson is seeking punitive damages to be determined at trial, legal costs and fees, an injunction requiring the defendants to declare him not guilty, and to remove “all false statements” about him from “Don’t F— This Up.”
In a statement to The Times, Reback added, “The facts of the case speak for themselves. We are confident that the case will end in complete victory and vindication for Mr. Jackson.”
A spokesperson for Hart did not respond to The Times’ request for comment Wednesday.
Hart has spoken publicly about the sex tape saga several times over the years, apologizing to his wife Eniko Parrish, who was pregnant with their first child when the tape was reportedly filmed in Las Vegas. Hart apologized to Parrish in an Instagram video in September 2017, amid reports that an unidentified woman had attempted to blackmail him over a sexually suggestive video.
“I need to do better and I will. I’m not perfect and I never claimed to be,” he wrote in the video’s caption. A few months later, he confessed to the affair, calling it “irresponsible beyond words” on “The Breakfast Club” in December 2017.
“That was Kevin Hart’s stupidest moment. It wasn’t the best time of my life,” he said. “I said that, but I made the bed, I lay down on the bed. I can’t tell you what I was thinking, because I wasn’t thinking.”
Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this article. report.
