Nicki Minaj dropped from harassment suit filed by woman who accused the singer's husband Kenneth Petty of sexual assault

Nicki Minaj has been dropped from the harassment lawsuit filed by Jennifer Hough, the woman who accused her husband, Kenneth Petty of sexual assault. 

According to court documents reviewed by TMZ, Hough agreed to voluntarily dismiss the suit against Minaj, but is continuing her litigation against Petty. 

An insider told the outlet that no settlement had been reached in coming to the accord to release Minaj from the suit, in which Petty had stated that the 39-year-old artist had made harassing and threatening maneuvers toward her. 

Minaj's lawyer Judd Burstein told TMZ that Hough and her legal team had sought to obtain money from the wealthy singer throughout the case, which was filed last August, and had strived to reach a settlement the entire time. 

The outlet cited an email it reviewed sent from Burstein to Hough's lawyer Tyrone Blackburn in which Burstein ripped his legal rival in the case for trying to make an easy dollar off of the star. 

'In my view, your conduct in pursuing this case against Nicki represents the worst of our legal system: bottom-feeding lawyers who pursue frivolous actions against a celebrity assuming that they will be paid off if they throw enough dirt,' Burstein told Blackburn in the message. 

Burstein noted that Minaj had to spend more than '$300,000 in fees to defend a case ... [that] was frivolous on both the facts and the law.' 

Petty was convicted of sexual assault in 1995 after he entered a guilty plea to attempted rape in connection with a September 16, 1994 incident in Jamaica, Queens, New York. 

Hough last summer filed the $500,000 suit against the couple in the U.S. District Court in Eastern New York, accusing them of harassment, witness intimidation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. 

In an interview on The Real in September, Hough opened up about an exchange she had with Minaj in March of 2020, in which she claims the pop star looked to work out an arrangement in which she would pay her to recant her past allegations toward Petty. 

'She called me and she said that she got word that I was willing to help them out in a situation,' she said. 'I didn't understand what she was referring to. She offered to fly me and my family to LA. I turned it down. And I told her, woman-to-woman, this really happened. And I hadn't spoken to her since.' 

Hough said that she had consistently declined offers from Minaj and Petty, which had led to their associates approaching her with counter offers. 

'Nicki is the one who personally reached out to me, in regards to helping her, helping them in this situation,' she said. 'And then the threats that I received because I kept saying no to every offer, to every suggestion. 

'The last incident was when one of their associates put $20,000 dollars on my lap. And I still kept saying no.'