Kevin Hart, 45, picked up a victory in a fraud and breach of contract lawsuit over a 2017 sex tape scandal. The actor and comedian has since confessed about the night he cheated on his wife, Eniko Hart, with another woman, during their recorded rendezvous in Las Vegas.
Hart even testified that he was under the influence of something he was given by an unnamed friend during a deposition for the person accused of leaking said sex tape to the public.
In 2018, Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Jonathan “JT” Jackson, 47, with allegedly trying to extort an undisclosed amount of money from his former friend.
However, Judge Daniel S. Murphy has now ruled that Jackson has forfeited his right to pursue his $12 million suit against former friend Hart in arbitration, Rolling Stone reported this week.
The prosecution accused Jackson of threatening to release a video of Hart having sex in a hotel with Montia Sabbag, a woman who was not his wife.
He faced one count of extortion, one count of extortion by threatening letter criminal case, two counts of identity theft, and one count of attempted selling of stolen property.
Jackson insisted he had no involvement in the creation or the dissemination of the sex tape. By 2021, the entire criminal case against him was dismissed.
Additionally, the actor alleged that Hart and his team “fabricated evidence and provided misleading statements” that led to Jackson’s wrongful arrest.
“I’m really glad to see the end result of the case being dismissed. It took a really long time for my client to get justice,” Jacob Glucksman, Jackson’s then-attorney, stated in response to the criminal case being closed.
Glucksman added, “He never committed any criminal offense against Kevin Hart or anyone else. There was never any demand made for any money. There was never any extortion attempt.”
Jackson filed a lawsuit against his former friend in July 2024, claiming Hart violated a settlement agreement that required him to declare Jackson’s innocence in the extortion case.
A clause states that Hart and Jackson agreed to settlement terms via private arbitration which included no monetary compensation.
Jackson’s lawyers agreed to resolve the legal issues if Hart posted a “meticulously negotiated” statement on social media.
“This is not a typical agreement where we delegate everything to the arbitrator,” Jonathan Jackson’s lawyer, Daniel Reback, stated in court on Oct. 23.
Reback continued, “There were specific carve-outs where if Mr. Hart does not perform precisely according to this verbiage we carefully negotiated, all bets are off.”
Jackson argued that Hart “blatantly broke” the agreement by not publicly exonerating him in an Instagram video statement.
Instead the “Ride Along” actor shared an Instagram video in October 2021 stating that he could not get into the details of the case due to legalities.
“You know they kind of put a fork in the road between he and I, and that relationship was lost. But I’m glad that now not only I can finally speak on it, but I can say I’m happy that that chapter of my life is over,” Hart explained to his followers at the time.
He continued, “I’m happy that we are able to put a period on that sentence, and I am excited to get back to life as we once knew it.”
The “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” star also said, “I want to get back to life as I once knew it and put that behind me and move on. This message is about moving on. It’s over.”
Apparently, Hart agreed to specifically say that Jackson had “nothing to do with” the sex tape leaking. That omission of unequivocally proclaiming Jackson’s innocence is what led to the breach of contract lawsuit.
Kevin Hart publicly apologizes for infidelity while implying he was being extorted over it. pic.twitter.com/jlj8A7I9d7
— DESUS & MERO on VICELAND (@DesusandMeroVL) September 19, 2017
The legal fight between Jackson and Hart also disclosed new information about the night Hart cheated on his wife, Eniko Hart, in Sin City.
During a deposition for the breach of contract lawsuit, Hart claimed an unnamed friend pressured him to take Molly on the night the sex tape was filmed.
At first, the Philadephia native said he initially turned down the hallucinogenic narcotic before eventually agreeing to partake in MDMA-infused water.
“F– it, I said, and I put it in my drink,” Hart admitted in the deposition. “I had some water there. It was watered down. Because it’s in my drink, I’m fine. I’m fine with drinking. The night is good.”
Kevin and Eniko got married on Aug. 13, 2016. The former model was pregnant with Kevin’s third child at the time of her husband’s Vegas rendezvous.
The couple share two other kids, 7-year-old son Kenzo Kash Hart, and 4-year-old daughter Kaori Mai Hart. Plus, Kevin has two children with his previous wife, Torrei Hart, adult daughter Heaven and teenage son Hendrix.
