Extortion Charge Dropped Against Kevin Hart's Best Friend Over Sex Tape Scandal
The felony extortion charge against Kevin Hart's best friend, J.T. Jackson, have been officially dropped.
In a shocking turn of events, the Los Angeles District Attorney filed documents Friday, explaining that prosecutor's did not have evidence to convict the part time actor with the criminal charge.
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In their filing, the DA states that upon reviewing the evidence it did not fit the bill for extortion.
The DA claims they investigated a "declaration" or tip that called into question the statement given to them as the extortionist threat to Kevin Hart.
The threat, "Give me $5 Million or I'm releasing the video," was posted into in the public comments on Kevin's Hart Instagram post apologizing to his family for his infidelities, so it did not count as a direct message to Hart.
The DA says after reviewing "thousands of public comments made to Mr. Hart's Instagram post," realized the threat was actually one of the comments.
Prosecutors corroborated the new evidence with a "declaration," and found that it "materially undermines the People's theory on Count One [extortion,] which requires proof of specific intent."
Jackson's high-powered attorney, Jacob Glucksman has been arguing his client did not extort Kevin Hart since the onset of the case.
According to our sources close to Jackson's legal team, they put the blame squarely on Kevin.
Jackson's legal team blames an aggressive DA's office who they believe saw a major celebrity case and ran with it, even though the evidence didn't show any crime was committed.
Glucksman also filed motions to challenge the warrant served on JT Jackson's home, claiming it was filled with numerous errors, omissions, misstatements.
Jackson's legal team also claims the case changed several times during the investigation from "extortion related emails" to a "spam email sent 8 months after the sex tape was made demanding bitcoins."
Eventually, the Instagram comment became the main focus and JT claimed he had nothing to do with it.
JT's legal team tells The Blast, "Jackson NEVER extorted or attempted to extort Hart and his name has been wrongfully dragged through the mud in an attempt to shift blame from Hart's infidelities in order to make him out to be some sort of a victim here."
Even though the Extortion charge was tossed, Jackson is not completely out of the woods at this point.
In an amended complaint, filed by the DA, Jackson is still facing several Felonies having to do with the sex tape scandal.
Specially, he is charged with one count of "unauthorized use of personal identifying information" of Kevin Hart with the "purpose of invasion of privacy and international interference with prospective economic advantage."
He is also charged with one count of the same charge for the other sex tape participant, Monica Sabbag.
Lastly, he has been charged with "attempted concealing, selling, and withholding of stolen property exceeding $950 in value," specifically "surreptitious-recorded images and audio of Kevin Hart knowing the property to be stolen or obtained unlawfully." i.e. the sextape.
As we reported, Kevin Hart was sued by Monica Sabbag for allegedly being involved in the production of the sex tape.
In her lawsuit, she claims Kevin wanted the publicity, that came with the scandal, for his upcoming special.
Hart continues to deny any knowledge of the tape being filmed or how it was ended up in a 3rd parties possession.
