Britney Spears and her father, Jamie Spears, continue to battle in court nearly two years after her conservatorship was officially terminated, but their attorneys have very different perspectives as to why the legal dispute is ongoing.
The pop icon’s lawyer, former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, explains that the heart of the case “has been resolved” despite the outstanding financial matters.
“Britney won when we obtained the court-ordered suspension of her father. Britney won when she was freed from an abusive 13-year conservatorship,” the noted trial attorney tells Pvnew exclusively.
“After being deprived of certain fundamental rights for 13 years, Britney’s civil liberties were restored, and that’s always what this was about.”
Jamie’s attorney, Alex Weingarten, tells Pvnew, though, that he has allegedly tried to bring an end to Britney’s and his client’s legal battle when he “first got involved” with the case and then again last summer, but to no avail.
He claims Rosengart only wanted to finish the case with “Jamie Spears in handcuffs.”
“All of the pending fee applications would have been withdrawn, and it would have been a complete and total walkaway,” Weingarten claims.
Pvnew first reported that Britney and Jamie were engaged in settlement talks in September 2022.
After a judge ruled in the “Toxic” singer’s favor to both have her father sit down for a deposition and blocked his request to have her deposed, a source told us it became a logical time to renew discussions.
However, Weingarten claims Rosengart “refused” to settle and allegedly told him “that if he was not paid $7 million to cover his legal fees, that he was going to file new lawsuits against Jamie and others.”
It was reported in May that the former federal prosecutor agreed to work pro bono after he made more than $4 million representing Britney — which disputes Weingarten’s allegations.
Rosengart also previously pointed out in court filings that Jamie himself received “at least $6 million” for his role as conservator.
However, Weingarten reiterates in his statement to Pvnew that he’s tried to settle “countless times.”
The managing partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP’s Litigation Group also claims that allegations Jamie, 71, secretly spied on his famous daughter, 41, using illegal surveillance tactics are false.
He still insists those claims are “meritless” and alleges to Pvnew that Rosengart allowed the statute of limitation to pass on those in August 2022.
Weingarten also alleges to Pvnew that there is “confidential information” under seal that “directly contracts all of the nonsense” that Rosengart has been “saying publicly and proves that there was never any illegal surveillance.”
However, Alex Vlasov, who worked at Black Box Security from 2012 to 2021, previously alleged in an investigation conducted by the New York Times that the “Overprotected” singer’s communications were being “monitored for her own security and protection.”
“Their reason for monitoring was looking for bad influence, looking for potential illegal activity that might happen, but they would also monitor conversations with her friends, with her mom, with her lawyer Sam Ingham,” he claimed in September 2021.
Rosengart reportedly hired experts to sweep Britney’s bedroom for proof that her father had bugged her.
In January 2022, the litigator also filed a declaration from former FBI agent Sherine Ebadi, who claimed Jamie “engaged in and directed others to engage in unconscionable violations of [Britney’s] privacy and civil liberties,” noting that the findings “raise criminal implications.”
That same month, a judge approved a separate trial to discuss the surveillance claims, but criminal charges have not yet been brought forth upon Jamie.
We’re told a hearing regarding the surveillance matters is still pending and scheduled for May, and that the FBI reportedly still has time to prosecute Jamie over these issues.
