Milagro Gramz is combating in a Miami federal courtroom to be handled as a journalist to save lots of her case.
The blogger is locked in a high-stakes facet battle inside Megan Thee Stallion’s defamation trial over whether or not she counts as “media” beneath Florida legislation, a label that would both protect her or depart her extensive open when the jury reaches a verdict.
Megan Thee Stallion sued Milagro in October 2024 in federal courtroom in Miami.
She says the commentator ran a relentless on-line marketing campaign with rapper Tory Lanez that unfold lies, promoted an AI p### deepfake and accused her of mendacity beneath oath concerning the 2020 taking pictures in Hollywood Hills.
The trial started Monday, November 17, with a nine-person jury listening to three central claims towards Milagro: defamation for saying Megan dedicated perjury, intentional infliction of emotional misery and promotion of a digitally altered sexual picture.
Within the new submitting, Milagro’s attorneys argue she is a “media defendant” who deserves the identical authorized protections that cowl information shops, bloggers and digital hosts.
They level to her Stationhead contract with Mobz Radio, the place she broadcasts 5 days every week for 5 hours a day, interviews company like Nicki Minaj, Bia, and Decide Joe Brown, and earns nearly six figures with no different earnings outdoors media internet hosting.
In addition they word her previous work on the On-Website discuss present’s “Messy Mondays” section, her HBO commentary look and her YouTube channel that covers high-profile trials and movie star disputes.
Underneath Florida legislation, individuals who operate as media should get written discover earlier than they’re sued for defamation in order that they have an opportunity to appropriate or retract their statements.
If Decide Cecilia Altonaga guidelines that Milagro falls into that class, Megan’s failure to ship that discover may blow up components of the case, put punitive damages in peril, and even result in a dismissal battle over the courtroom’s energy to maintain listening to the claims.
Megan’s group is pushing simply as onerous in the other way. In a separate transient, her attorneys remind the decide that she had already dominated Milagro was not a media defendant when she refused to dismiss the case earlier this 12 months, writing that the courtroom “concludes she doesn’t’ qualify.
They now need that view locked in earlier than the jury will get directions.
To drive the purpose house, Megan’s attorneys threw Milagro’s personal language again at her.
In livestreams, she admitted, “I didn’t inform anyone I used to be a reporter. I ain’t by no means advised you I went to high school for journalism. You don’t should be a journalist to provide an opinion.”
The trial itself has been intense.
She advised the courtroom she is suing as a result of she is bored with Milagro “carrying on this narrative that I’m simply such a nasty particular person and I’d lie to place an harmless man in jail,” and stated she hated that the blogger drove folks to look at “a really disgusting pretend pornographic video” of her.
Outdoors the media battle, jurors will determine whether or not Milagro lied when she known as Megan a drunk, claimed she had a “extreme ingesting drawback” and advised followers the rapper dedicated perjury in Tory Lanez’s legal case, even after a jury convicted him of taking pictures Megan and a decide sentenced him to 10 years in jail.
If Milagro wins the journalist battle, she beneficial properties a robust protect: Megan would face stricter proof guidelines, potential limits on damages and contemporary arguments over whether or not the case can go ahead in any respect.
If the decide sticks together with her earlier view that Milagro isn’t media, the blogger loses that safety and walks the remainder of this trial on a tightrope with far much less security internet.
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