Lady Gaga Defends Kesha In Legal Battle Against Dr. Luke

Lady Gaga’s September 2017 deposition in Kesha’s ongoing legal fight with her former producer, Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald, has been unsealed, according to The Blast. The Blast and Pitchfork viewed the unsealed document and reported on the heated questioning between Lady Gaga and Dr. Luke’s lawyer.

Gaga is also a sexual assault survivor and according to the reports on the documentation, she was crying and struggling with PTSD throughout the deposition, which her lawyer addressed at the start of the testimony. During questioning, Lady Gaga said she first met Kesha at Luke’s home studio where she found an underwear-clad Kesha in a back room. Gaga recalled how Kesha later confided in her after years of abuse, but could not remember the specifics of their conversation:

“What I recall was her immense sadness and depression and fear. She was visibly very different than when I had seen her before, and – but I can’t say specifically what we spoke about. I just recall it was emotional and I wanted to be there for her.”

Luke’s lawyer asked whether Lady Gaga believed being accused of rape had damaged the producer’s reputation to which Gaga responded:

“Reputation, if you are asking about his reputation in the world, I don’t feel at liberty to speak for the entire world. So if you are asking what my view is of his reputation, I made my view of him and his reputation when I saw her in that back room. That was an image that – of something that happened to me, and I felt and knew in my heart that she was telling the truth, and I believe her.”

The already tense questioning continued. Luke’s lawyer argued that Gaga didn’t have personal knowledge or information as to interactions, physical or otherwise, between Luke and Kesha, to which Gaga replied that she did have knowledge. Dr. Luke's lawyer asked her to explain and she repeated that Kesha revealed that Luke assaulted her. Luke’s legal team continued to press, arguing that Lady Gaga only had Kesha’s word to go off of. Gaga responded passionately:

“Well, you know – when men assault women, they don’t invite people over to watch…And when this happens in this industry, it is kept extremely secret, and it is compounded by contracts and manipulative power scenarios that actually include this very situation that we are all in right now.”

The lawyer tried to claim that this particular situation could be a false rape accusation to which Gaga said, “how about all of the women that are accused of being liars and how she was slut shamed in front of the world, how about that?”

Luke’s lawyer then tried to chalk it up to a she-said/he-said situation, which Gaga refuted:

“I believe it to be true…I have factual knowledge of her depression. I have factual knowledge of her need for support and love. I have factual knowledge of the spiral that I watched that girl go down. I have factual knowledge of trauma. I am informed and intelligent about this issue. That girl has experienced serious trauma and she is in the middle of it right now. And you are all a party to it.”

Luke’s lawyer flippantly asked, “You weren’t there, correct?”

Gaga was clearly fed-up, "Why on earth would this girl tell the entire world this happened? Why on earth? Do you know what it’s like for survivors? Do you know what it’s like to tell people? Don’t you roll you eyes at me. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Gaga’s lawyer then called for a break from questioning. To view the official deposition document, click here.

Lady Gaga’s testimony in support of Kesha, in the midst of so much disbelief, doubt, and insensitivity, is truly heart warming and empowering. I love women supporting women!

Image: Instagram/Lady Gaga

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Allie Lawrence graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a B.A. in Theatre Arts and English. She loves dogs, laughter, and The Great British Bake Off. Feel free to follow her on Twitter @0riginalliety.