Cardi B simply walked out of court docket a free girl and straight onto Instagram to let everybody know precisely how she was celebrating. On Tuesday, a Los Angeles jury sided with the rapper, clearing her of assault in a $24 million lawsuit stemming from a 2018 altercation. The “WAP” hitmaker had been accused of spitting on safety guard Emani Ellis, placing her, and even slashing her face with one in all her trademark nails after Ellis allegedly filmed her exterior a health care provider’s workplace. Ellis filed the go well with in 2020, setting off years of authorized back-and-forth, however ultimately, Cardi B, whose actual title is Belcalis Almánzar, walked away victorious.

How did Cardi mark her huge win? By doing what she does greatest… Placing on a present. On Wednesday, she posted an Instagram video carrying a polka dot blazer earlier than stripping all the way down to a thong and twerking for hundreds of thousands of followers. The clip doubled as a promo for her upcoming single “Bodega Baddie,” and naturally, Cardi ended it in pure Cardi style, slapping her well-known bottom and flipping off the digicam with an enormous grin.

Outdoors the courthouse, Cardi opened up about how draining the lawsuit had been. “It’s been actually robust,” she admitted, noting that Tuesday additionally occurred to be her kids’s first day of faculty, time she needed to miss due to the trial.

The rapper additionally promised she’s performed taking part in good with opportunistic lawsuits. “The subsequent particular person to attempt to do a frivolous lawsuit in opposition to me, I’m going to countersue and I’m going to make you pay, as a result of this isn’t OK,” she warned. “Folks have this misinterpretation of celebrities, like, ‘Oh, effectively, we will ask for this, and so they’re going to settle…’ Don’t you ever suppose that you simply’re going to sue me and I’m simply going to settle and simply provide you with my cash. It’s not going to occur.”

Following the decision, Emani Ellis, the previous safety guard who introduced the $24 million lawsuit, additionally spoke out and shared her response with reporters. “I don’t suppose that it displays the reality, however I’m not dissatisfied,” Ellis stated, suggesting the jury’s resolution didn’t match her model of occasions. “We all know that the justice system is usually flawed, and sadly that was the case for me.”

Ellis added that, for her, the case had at all times been about “accountability.” She continued, “I had my day in court docket, I confirmed up, I held my head excessive.”

However earlier than Cardi might have fun with a victory dance, her destiny rested within the fingers of the jury and the fiery closing arguments that capped off the trial. “Plaintiff superior on Cardi, screaming and yelling, forcing Cardi backwards,” Cardi’s lawyer Peter Anderson argued. He urged Ellis had deliberately sought out the star, claiming she knew the rapper could be on the obstetrician’s workplace that day and was “mendacity in wait” in hopes of photographing and filming her.

Anderson additionally downplayed Ellis’s accidents, stating inconsistencies in her testimony. “She didn’t know if the scratch that supposedly ruined her life was even bleeding. What did she do? She claims that Cardi mauled her, principally, reduce her face, and what did she do? She went house and took a nap. That was her personal testimony.”

Cardi’s lawyer Peter Anderson advised jurors that the rapper had performed nothing mistaken past making an attempt to protect herself and her unborn youngster. “She didn’t do something mistaken, besides attempt to shield her child and get to a health care provider,” he argued, earlier than including, “Arguing, yelling, even utilizing profanity, is just not one thing you possibly can sue over. That’s simply a part of regular life.”

Cardi herself testified that the conflict occurred whereas she was 4 months pregnant along with her first youngster. She defined she was strolling by way of a Beverly Hills obstetrician’s workplace when Ellis, who labored within the constructing, started following her and recording her with a cellphone. The “Bodak Yellow” rapper flatly denied that issues ever turned bodily, however admitted she did name Ellis a “b-tch” within the warmth of the second.