Tory Lanez’s Damning Jail Call Leaks, Sparking Support for Megan Thee Stallion

In July 2020, Megan Thee Stallion alleged that fellow rapper Tory Lanez had shot her in the feet. Earlier this month, a jury convicted Lanez on three felony counts—ostensibly bringing an end to years of debate regarding what had transpired between the two after a party at Kylie Jenner’s home. On social media, however, support for Lanez has lingered among diehard fans who remain unconvinced by official reporting on the trial. Newly leaked audio of Lanez’s jail call to Megan’s former friend, Kelsey Harris, might help turn that tide.

As reported by Uproxx on Friday, Law Crime News reporter Meghann Cuniff has confirmed the authenticity of the leaked audio, which matches up with transcript quotes she reported during the trial.

“I was just so fucking drunk,” Lanez tells Harris at one point during the phone call—a quote Cuniff included in a dispatch weeks ago. “That’s not going to make my actions right.” He acknowledges in the audio that there was an altercation and states that he doesn’t remember what it was about.

“I just didn’t understand what was going on,” Lanez says in a separate moment—also a quote Cuniff previously reported. At another point, he says, “I never did that shit if I wasn’t that drunk.”

During the trial, Cuniff reported, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Alexander Bott told jurors that he and his co-counsel, Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta, could find no other interpretation for the call aside from an apology for shooting at Megan. As Cuniff reported at the time and recently reiterated on Twitter, Lanez’s defense attorney, George Mgdesyan, told the jury during the trial that Lanez was apologizing not for the alleged shooting, but for causing a jealous fight between Megan and Harris, who was present at the time of the altercation. The defense claimed Lanez was falsely accused and that it was Harris who shot her now ex-friend, not Lanez.

“Jealousy. This case is about jealousy, ladies and gentlemen,” Mgdesyan said during the trial, per Cuniff’s reporting.

What Megan Thee Stallion and Meghan Markle Have in Common

Lanez now stands convicted of assault with a semiautomatic firearm; having a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle; and discharging a firearm with gross negligence. He faces a maximum sentence of 22 years.

Much has been said about the misogynoir that’s underpinned much of the skepticism Megan’s allegations have received since the beginning—both from bloggers and from public figures like Drake. But more than anything, the trial’s conclusion—and the exhibits that are now spreading online—call to mind words from the rapper herself in 2020.

“It was just the worst experience of my life,” Megan said of the shooting and her subsequent foot surgery in an Instagram post. “And it’s not funny. It’s nothing to joke about. It was nothing for y’all to start going and making up fake stories about. I didn’t put my hands on nobody. I didn’t deserve to get shot. I didn’t do shit.”

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