Six months after Kevin Hart and Montia Sabbag found themselves victims of a leaked sex tape, Sabbag’s lawyer says only half of the case has been absolved.
Lisa Bloom, a high-powered attorney for The Bloom Firm, spoke with PopCulture.com exclusively to provide an update in her work to redeem her client’s image and to find the person who filmed and leaked the private moments.
Videos by PopCulture.com
“When Montia came to me, a lot of people in the press were accusing her of being the one to leak the sex tape, and she was just appalled because she was a victim just like he was. She had nothing to do with it,” Bloom said of Sabbag.
As tabloids claimed Sabbag was pregnant as a result of Hart’s infidelity and that she was requesting money from the Jumanji actor as part of her own extortion attempt, Bloom worked to rebuild her client’s name in light of these falsehoods.
“She was just shocked and upset that this tape had gotten out there as well so I represented her to try to redeem her reputation a little bit and say she has nothing to do with this,” she continued.
“In fact, she and I went to the police — which is something you don’t do if you’re accused of a crime. But she went to the police because she’s not guilty of anything,” Bloom continued. “She was a victim as well and she fully cooperated and gave them all of the information, handed over her phone for them to look at.”
Following a three-hour meeting with investigators, Sabbag was never accused, charged or identified as a person of interest in the case.
“So I think her reputation has been redeemed,” Bloom said.
And while Bloom has cleared Sabbag’s name of involvement in the filming or leaking of the explicit footage or of the subsequent extortion attempt against Hart, the attorney said justice has not been fully served in the case.
She said despite cooperation from Sabbag and Hart, investigators have not found the culprit behind the NSFW leak.
“Somebody committed a number of crimes. They surreptitiously recorded her while they were together in private moments in a hotel room. Then they took those images and they posted them online — I think they first tried to extort money out of Kevin Hart — so I hope that they do catch whoever did this because it is very serious,” Bloom added.
Police reportedly served search warrants in September on several people who were suspected to be involved in the leak and extortion scandal, and obtained cell phone records, computer hard drives and other evidence for the case.
The case is ongoing, but Bloom previously told PopCulture.com that “Montia and I are committed to seeing this through and getting justice.”
Hart has also spoken out about his “tough year,” alluding to his public moment of infidelity from wife Eniko Parrish, who was pregnant with their son Kenzo at the time.
“It was a tough year for me,” he said at Jumanji‘s Los Angeles premiere in December. “I had some bumps in the road but the good thing is you take steps backwards to take great steps forwards so now, I recovered from some not nice times … I’m doing good and I’m doing better — I’m a good guy.”
