Bill Cosby made a deal with tabloid National Enquirer to kill a story about a new sexual assault accuser in exchange for an exclusive interview, newly released court records revealed earlier this week.
The comedian described the deal in his testimony during the 2005 civil suit from Andrea Constand, a Temple University basketball program employee who alleged that Cosby had drugged and molested her, according to The New York Times.
Cosby’s deal with the Enquirer was for the paper to hold back an interview with Beth Ferrier, a former model who accused Cosby of drugging her and sexually assaulting her in the 1980s. Cosby agreed to the exclusive interview with the Enquirer so the Ferrier story wouldn’t run during his civil suit against Constand, fearing it would add credence to her case.
According to the article, Cosby admits to the hush, hush media swap in his testimony:
“I would give them an exclusive story, my words,” Mr. Cosby said when asked in the deposition in the sexual assault case about his agreement with The Enquirer, according to the court documents. In return, The Enquirer “would not print the story of — print Beth’s story,” Mr. Cosby said.
“Did you ever think that if Beth Ferrier’s story was printed in The National Enquirer, that that would make the public believe that maybe Andrea was also telling the truth?” he was asked.
“Exactly,” he replied.
Cosby would later settle the case out of court with Constand in 2006. The National Enquirer has not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for comment on this story.
The records were released by the Federal District Court in Philadelphia as Cosby finds himself buried in a mountain of allegations, with more than a dozen women coming forward with accusations in recent weeks. Many of the claims involve Cosby allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting the women in question.
In the wake of the mounting accusations against the 77-year-old comedian, Cosby’s attorney, Marty Singer released a statement saying: “The new, never-before-heard claims from women who have come forward in the past two weeks with unsubstantiated, fantastical stories about things they say occurred 30, 40, or even 50 years ago have escalated far past the point of absurdity.
“These brand new claims about alleged decades-old events are becoming increasingly ridiculous, and it is completely illogical that so many people would have said nothing, done nothing, and made no reports to law enforcement or asserted civil claims if they thought they had been assaulted over a span of so many years,” Singer claimed.