Bill Cosby tries exploiting legal loophole to avoid 'a firestorm of publicity' about his personal life

Former comedian claims that sealed motions regarding his ‘most intimate subjects imaginable’ must be kept confidential

Bill Cosby (Getty)

Bill Cosby is trying to exploit a legal loophole that would prevent the release of materials posing a ‘real, specific threat of serious embarrassment’.

The comedian has come under intense scrutiny, which gained significant traction in 2014 as more and more women started speaking out about the abuse they claimed to have suffered at his hands (you can read an in-depth look at the charges against him here).

The Hollywood Reporter notes that nine years ago, Cosby settled a lawsuit brought up by Andrea Constand, the first woman who came forward and spoke publicly about allegations of sexual assault.

With the case settled, certain motions that were brought up during the case were ‘sealed’, but an obscure rule allows the unsealing of such records after two years.

These motions allegedly refer to sexual misconduct allegations and issues relating to Cosby’s health, including his use of prescription drugs, information about his finances and insight into his personal relationships.

Amid the frenzy towards the end of last year, the Associated Press contacted the court asking for these sealed materials to be reviewed in light of the overwhelming number of charges since filed against Cosby. But Cosby’s attorney argues this would violate his client’s privacy.

The brief states that Cosby’s testimony ‘delves into the most intimate subjects imaginable’ and ‘would generate a firestorm of publicity’.

On Wednesday, Cosby told a judge he’s not a public figure, therefore there’s no legitimate public interest in contents of the old lawsuit. The brief adds that “the relevant information is [not] important to public health or safety” and that Cosby’s status in the public eye “does not render him a public person within the meaning of the law”.

But in a separate brief, the Associated Press have argued that there is no support for the continued sealing of this document, and that the Court has already ruled Cosby’s ‘fear of embarrassment and humiliation is insufficient’ to support the re-sealing of the motions.

Enough damage has been done to his reputation at this point, they state, that “the possibility that the sealed material will do further material damage appears remote at best”.

Since the huge number of allegations, traces of Cosby have been wiped from the airwaves. In the US reruns of The Cosby Show were pulled, and NBC scrapped a sitcom that was being developed with Cosby.