Things are heating up in the legal battle between Rachel Leviss and Ariana Madix. The former Vanderpump Rules star sued both Ariana and Tom Sandoval, accusing them of distributing revenge porn. This all stems back to the phone sex video that Ariana found on Tom’s phone. It tipped her off to the cheating scandal but remains a lingering piece to the messy puzzle. In an initial response from Ariana’s legal team, they completely slammed Rachel’s lawsuit as a misuse of the legal system.
Ariana’s lawyers strongly condemned Rachel’s case
People got their hands on the court documents where Ariana’s legal team dragged Rachel and her lawsuit. Rachel accused Ariana of engaging in revenge porn after sharing the video she found on Tom’s phone. In addition to calling the accusation an “abuse of the legal process,” Ariana’s lawyers argued that she did nothing wrong.
“In a locked stall, she accessed the phone and saw strangely suspicious text messages between Mr. Sandoval and [Leviss],” the court documents recalled.
They continued, “Ms. Madix then opened the photo app on Mr. Sandoval’s phone and was shocked to find a video of a Facetime call between Mr. Sandoval and [Leviss] that showed Mr. Sandoval’s face in the upper corner while the main image was of [Leviss] masturbating.”
Ariana admitted to using her phone to take two short videos of what she saw on Tom’s. Then, she sent those videos to Rachel along with a text saying, “You’re dead to me.” Other than that, her lawyers claimed that Ariana didn’t distribute any images of Rachel. Allegedly, Tom snatched her phone and deleted them in a heated argument a few minutes after this all happened.
“In fact, Ms. Madix could not have shared such footage because Mr. Sandoval deleted it from her phone within minutes of Ms. Madix confronting him—a fact Ms. Madix stated in writing 33 minutes after sending the videos to [Leviss],” the filing claimed.
In the court filing, Ariana and her lawyers argued that Rachel’s claims need to be dismissed. They think Ariana’s right to free speech is being infringed upon and that Rachel is just trying to milk the Scandoval situation for more attention. Similarly, Tom’s lawyers accused Rachel of trying to “rebrand herself as a victim.”
Vanderpump Rules continues, without Rachel, on Bravo, Tuesdays at 8/7c.
TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON RACHEL’S LAWSUIT AGAINST ARIANA AND TOM? DID ARIANA MAKE A MISTAKE BY RECORDING THE VIDEO SHE SAW ON SANDOVAL’S PHONE?
