Britney Spears’s attorney, Mat Rosengart, made clear that despite his victory today freeing his client from the “corrupted” conservatorship, he still had unanswered questions about his client’s father and her former management team.
Rosengart said outside the Los Angeles courthouse that he believes that an investigation into the practices during the conservatorship is warranted. Rosengart said while he is no longer a federal prosecutor, he believes that the conduct alleged in the New York Times’ highly vetted documentary, Controlling Britney, “deserves investigation.”
“I used to be a federal prosecutor, now I’m just a private attorney,” said Rosengart at a crowded press conference right after the hearing dissolving the almost 14-year-old conservatorship. “I don’t have criminal investigative powers. What happens [from] there will be up to law enforcement.”
“This is a monumental day for Britney Spears,” he said. “It is also a somber day for me, Britney and for a lot of us who follow conservatorships and how they operate. This conservatorship was corrupted by James P. Spears. James P. Spears, as we all know, public records …” He also alleged Spears took anywhere from an audible number to $4 million dollars from her estate. “He took a salary from the estate,” he added. “He took a percentage of his daughter’s earnings in Las Vegas and otherwise.”
Rosengart said he has tried to get answers from James, more commonly known as Jamie, but thus far Jamie has evaded his requests to sit for a deposition. He said he also tried unsuccessfully to get answers from Britney’s former business firm TriStar Sports & Entertainment. Rosengart said all he would say regarding TriStar was that “we were forced to issue a subpoena to TriStar entertainment because they wouldn’t voluntarily cooperate.”
He said rather than voluntarily cooperating, TriStar filed a motion to suppress those subpoenas and “suppress information” that Britney had requested. He said that the most notable question he wanted answers from TriStar for Britney was “ How much money did you take from the estate? How much money did you receive from the estate?”
“One would think that a business manager when asked by her client to respond … their response has been ‘well it’s in the accountings,’” said Rosengart. “I would ask, ‘Does TriStar treat all their clients this way or is it just Britney Spears?’”
“She has been bullied for a decade and why TriStar continues to bully Britney Spears is a fair question,” said Rosengart. “TriStar will have to answer for that.”
Vulture has reached out to TriStar and Jamie Spears’s attorneys for comment on Rosengart’s statements and they have not yet responded.
