Russell Simmons lawsuit vs HBO

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Record exec Russell Simmons has filed a defamation lawsuit against HBO and parent Warner Bros. Discovery over the 2020 documentary On the Record.

Legendary record executive and Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons has filed a defamation claim against HBO over the documentary On the Record. The film, which was released on HBO Max in 2020, covers allegations of sexual misconduct against Simmons.

“HBO you owe me 100s of millions of dollars,” he claimed on Threads. “I need my bread for all my charities and family members, specifically my children. You know what you did was horrific and malicious. You can’t hide. Ask Oprah or anyone [who’s] ever looked at the evidence [in the lawsuit]. You intentionally suppressed all of it. I want [an] apology and 100 million. […] Time to pay.”

“Russell Simmons has filed a claim of defamation in court regarding the film On the Record,” said his attorneys, Imran H. Ansari and Carla DiMare, in a statement. “Despite voluminous support for Mr. Simmons in the form of credible information, persuasive evidence, witness statements, and calls for further investigation by notable members of the media, politics, and civil rights movement, the defendants simply disregarded it, and released, and continue to re-release globally, a film that tremendously disparaged and damaged Mr. Simmons with salacious and defamatory accusations that he vehemently denies.”

The lawsuit comes in the wake of a filing Simmons and his legal team made in New York’s Supreme Court back in June, in which he was seeking $20 million and a court order to make Warner Bros. Discovery remove the film from its platforms.

The filing claims that HBO, HBO Max, producers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, and the filmmakers’ company, Jane Doe Films, “willfully, intentionally” disregarded or suppressed a trove of evidence Simmons says was presented to executives that include John Stankey, the CEO of Warner Media at the time.

“We dispute Mr. Simmons’ allegations, stand by the filmmakers and their process, and will vigorously defend ourselves against these unfounded allegations,” said a spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery.

On the Record came out after years of allegations of sexual misconduct against Russell Simmons, who has largely denied them. In 2020, he won a lawsuit against a woman whose allegations fell beyond the statute of limitations, and in 2024 he was sued for sexual assault and defamation.