Megan Thee Stallion has scored an early victory in her defamation lawsuit against blogger Milagro Elizabeth Cooper, better known as Gramz.
According to court documents Magistrate Judge Lisette M. Reid has issued sanctions against Gramz for “deleting thousands of text messages” that could have supported Megan’s claims.
The Grammy-winning rapper, whose real name is Megan Pete, filed the lawsuit in 2024, accusing the YouTuber and hip-hop commentator of leading an online smear campaign against her. Megan alleged that Gramz deliberately spread false and damaging information at the direction of Tory Lanez, the Canadian rapper sentenced to 10 years in prison for shooting her in 2020.
Megan’s legal team described Gramz as a paid “mouthpiece” working with Lanez (real 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 court 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.”
A forensic review revealed that Gramz had deleted text messages from her devices and WhatsApp, despite explicit court orders to preserve them. Judge Reid ruled that Gramz understood her obligation to retain the evidence and that her “pattern of deletions indicates bad faith spoliation, inherently prejudicing Plaintiff.”
As a result, the judge granted Megan’s team an “adverse inference” — meaning the jury will be allowed to assume the deleted evidence would have been damaging to Gramz’s defense.
The ruling stated: “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.”
On top of that, Gramz must pay Megan’s legal fees and costs related to the spoliation issue. Both parties have five days to negotiate the amount; if they can’t reach an agreement within 10 days, Megan’s team will present the judge with a proposed figure and billing details.
“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 when 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.”
