Russell Simmons halts #NotMe campaign
Russell Simmons isn’t banging the #NotMe drums anymore.
According to Page Six, the media mogul decided not to use the hashtag to publicly declare his innocence. His reps told the site “that this is a time for women to speak.”
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Over the course of November and December, 13 women came forward accusing Simmons of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to rape. Eventually, Simmons stepped away from his business, but he continued to publicly maintain his innocence, even going so far as to co-opt the #MeToo hashtag to say #NotMe.
But that hashtag backfired in a big way, with Kelly Cutrone stepping forward to tell Page Six that he had tried to rape her in 1991.
“The #NotMe thing? I’m going to do a #YeahYou. F – – k you,” she said.
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https://twitter.com/AlaskaLadyDee/status/946939397940715520
Simmons defense… and then silence
“Today, I begin to properly defend myself. I will prove without any doubt that I am innocent of all rape charges. Today, I will focus on ‘The Original Sin’ [referring to model Keri Claussen Khalighi, who accused him in the LA Times of rape], the claim that created this insane pile on of my #MeToo,” he wrote on Instagram on December 14.
He also said that he would be addressing the claims that Jenny Lumet made against him that he had violated her.
TMZ reported that same day that Simmons had taken a lie detector test about Khalighi’s accusations and “passed [it] with flying colors.” Simmons also reportedly planned to take four more tests.
But as for that infamous #NotMe hashtag, Simmons has been notably quite since those lie detector tests. He hasn’t said anything publicly about the accusations, and his only posts on Instagram have been “inspirational” quotes.
His reps told Page Six that “Mr. Simmons’ previous statements stand, and he has nothing to add to [them] at this time.”
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