Megan Thee Stallion Granted Sanctions in Defamation Lawsuit Against Blogger Gramz

Megan Thee Stallion has secured an early win in her defamation case against blogger Milagro Elizabeth Cooper, aka Gramz.

According to court documents reviewed by Complex, U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid has ordered sanctions against Gramz for “deleting thousands of text messages” that could have supported the plaintiff’s case.

Megan (real name Megan Pete) sued Gramz in 2024, alleging the YouTuber and hip-hop commentator had participated in an online smear campaign against her. The Grammy-winning rapper claimed Gramz had intentionally spread false and damaging information about her at the behest of Tory Lanez, the Canadian rapper who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting Megan in 2020.

Megan’s legal team alleged that Gramz was a paid “mouthpiece” who had worked with Lanez (legal name Daystar Peterson) and his father, Sonstar Peterson.

“Daystar himself is unable to speak or post directly regarding Pete due to restrictions in the underlying criminal action,” the legal document read. “Pete alleges that Defendant has a close relationship with both Daystar and Sonstar Peterson, as evidenced through Defendant’s social media postings… Thus, communications between and relating to Defendant, Daystar, and Sonstar are material to Plaintiff’s claims and are the focal point of these spoliation proceedings.”

According to the order, a forensic investigation determined that Gramz had deleted text messages from her devices as well as the WhatsApp messaging app, despite the court’s orders to preserve the data. Judge Reid states Gramz knew she had a duty to preserve the evidence and that her “pattern of deletions indicate bad faith spoliation, inherently prejudicing Plaintiff.”

In light of the forensic discoveries, the judge has permitted the jury to presume the deleted information was unfavorable to Gramz’s defense.

Per the ruling: “While the burden of establishing prejudice generally falls on the party seeking sanctions, the Court notes that Plaintiff will likely never be able to prove what was contained in the destroyed text messages, and that only Defendant, the party who engaged in the destruction, knows how much prejudice has been (potentially) caused.”

In addition to the punitive adverse inference instruction, Gramz was ordered to cover Megan’s legal fees and costs related to the spoliation issue. The parties will have five days to determine how much Megan is owed; if in the next 10 days they fail to agree on a set amount, the plaintiff must go to the judge with the requested payment and the related billable time entries.

“It’s time to hold bloggers accountable for years of harassment, cyberbullying, and the publication of misinformation about my personal and professional life,” Megan said in a 2024 statement announcing the lawsuit. “I’ve endured countless attacks on my character based on false narratives from social media bloggers misrepresenting themselves as journalists. It’s unacceptable behavior and these individuals need to understand there will be repercussions for recklessly posting lies and defamatory falsehoods.”