New file In the ongoing legal battle between Kevin Hart and his former friend, Jonathan “JT” Jackson has released an interview transcript in which the comedian discusses the events surrounding his 2017 sex tape scandal.
The transcript was attached as an attachment to a document Jackson's lawyers filed on Aug. 6 in support of his lawsuit against Hart. Jackson accused Hart of violating a settlement agreement they signed in 2021, which related to the sex tape scandal and related criminal extortion charges against Jackson, but which were eventually dropped.
The revised version includes a September 2017 interview between Hart and an investigator from the district attorney's office. In the interview, Hart recounts a trip to Las Vegas in August 2017, where the comedian slept with a woman named Montia Sabag while his wife, Eniko, was pregnant.
Hart reveals that he was under the influence of drugs the night of the incident, claiming that an unnamed friend pressured him to take drugs, telling him, “I won't let you do anything.” Hart eventually said, “Go to hell,” and slipped drugs into his drink.
Although Hart admitted he was “disturbed” that night, he said he wasn't completely absent, and even his security detail said they weren't “worried” about him. He also admitted he had been flirting with Sabag throughout the night, but insisted he hadn't planned to sleep with her: “It was a nice flirtation. I knew it could happen if I wanted it to. I didn't push it, because at that moment I didn't really want it.”
Hart went on to say that Sabag eventually got into bed with him, and while they didn’t have sex that night, they did have sex the next morning. The comedian went on to talk about the hidden camera that captured the scene, but at no point accused anyone of placing it. However, he seemed to suggest that Sabag knew where the camera was based on her actions during sex.
“While we were having sex, all of a sudden, she was facing one direction,” Hart said, adding, “She threw herself back on the bed. That was her attempt to get closer to the camera. And when she did that, I pulled her back. You never see me having sex in that area. And then she got up, and then she sat on the chair, which is clearly in the camera’s field of view. She sat on the chair and started talking to me. And in this video, if you look, there’s a moment where I walk around and I’m looking at her phone. She called me there to say something to me, so she could get a clear view of me.”
Hart's representative did not immediately return. Rolling StoneRequest comment.
Sabaj confirmed that she was the woman in the video, but claimed she had nothing to do with the recording or the extortion attempt that followed. Sabaj filed a $60 million lawsuit against Jackson and Hart in 2022, claiming they made the tape to promote one of Hart's comedy tours, but the lawsuit was eventually dismissed.
Shortly after Hart and Jackson's trip to Las Vegas, Hart's wife, Nika, received an anonymous message alleging that her husband was “cheating” on her; the message also allegedly contained a Dropbox link to an edited video of Hart engaging in an intimate act with a woman. That evening, Hart posted an apology video on social media. In the comments, someone using the Instagram username Misterjood said, “Give me $5 million or I'll post the video. There's no need to make this video public. You had your chance.”
Hours later, the video footage was leaked and the FBI quickly began investigating the blackmail plot. While Jackson was arrested, he was eventually exonerated.
His lawsuit against Hart, filed earlier this summer, relates to a social media post from Hart in 2021 about the whole thing. Jackson claims Hart was obligated to use “specific language” to “publicly exonerate Jackson,” but the comedian’s wording “softened the tone.”[d] This intent is conveyed by framing the acquittal as the conclusion of a chapter in Hart's own life rather than a clear and unambiguous vindication of Jackson.
In the August 6 filing, which contains a copy of the deposition, Jackson's attorneys claim that Hart's interview with the district attorney's investigator supports this claim: In the interview, the filing alleges, “Hart asserts multiple key points that refute the allegations made against him. [Jackson] Hart showed that he instigated the criminal extortion charges that led to [Jackson’s] arrest.”
