As Tory Lanez waits to find out how much time he’ll spend in prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, the Canadian rapper’s team is criticizing a news reporter covering the case.
In an Instagram Story on Thursday (July 13), reps for the rapper lashed out at Meghann Cuniff — a longtime legal correspondent who provided gavel-to-gavel coverage of the trial.
The statement claimed Cuniff is “negative and extremely biased,” and Lanez’s followers should ignore updates from the journalist.
“With all due respect…Please disregard anything Megan Cuniff reports on Tory Lanez. Her objective, perspective/narrative has always been negative and extremely biased towards him … if there is an update on Tory it will come from this page first. If it doesn’t come from this page it’s not real,” read the statement on Lanez’s verified Instagram account, as captured by The Neighborhood Talk.
The statement was signed by The Umbrella team, but did not include any examples of alleged “bias.”
Related Story: Tory Lanez Denied Motion for New Trial After Conviction in Megan Thee Stallion Shooting
Cuniff has reported for Law & Crime network, Los Angeles Magazine, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times.
She responded to the post from Lanez’s team after an LA Times reporter reposted it on Twitter and said Cuniff has simply been reporting the facts.
“Wish he’d @’d me or at least spelled my name correctly ??.” Cuniff tweeted Thursday in response.
The complaint about Cuniff came a day after she reported that a Los Angeles judge denied a request for Ronda R. Dixon to be brought in as a replacement lawyer on the case.
In the article published on a legalaffairsandtrials.com substack, Dixon said Lanez’s lawyers were not looking out for his best interests.
“These guys are just taking advantage of [Tory],” Dixon told Cuniff. “They’ve had him sign powers of attorneys. They’re acting on his behalf… They’re not really asking him what he wants.”
Related Story: Tory Lanez Writes Open Letter to Los Angeles County D.A. Trashing Prosecutors
After meeting with Lanez, Dixon described him as “totally despondent” and said he is being held in isolation, away from the rest of the inmates in L.A.’s Men’s Central Jail.
“His eyes were black,” Dixon said. “He told me he wanted to go to state prison. I said, ‘You want to go to state prison? Why?’ He said, ‘At least I’ll be able to go out in the yard and talk to people.’ That upset me. I don’t think he’s guilty.”
The attorney said the plan was for her to replace Lanez’s lawyer Matthew Barhoma ahead of the August sentencing hearing. However, the rapper’s lead attorney, Jose Baez, said he’s hiring Orange County criminal defense attorney Thomas Edward “Ed” Welbourn to prepare for the hearing.
Cuniff’s article included a copy of the “substitution of attorney” filing submitted to the court. It was dated on June 27, and signed by Dixon and Barhoma.
Lanez, born Daystar Peterson, will likely see Cuniff in court on Aug. 7, when he is scheduled to be sentenced.
The “It Doesn’t Matter” performer was found guilty on Dec. 23, 2022, of assault with a semiautomatic firearm; discharging a firearm with gross negligence; and carrying a loaded unregistered firearm in a vehicle; along with the special allegation of using a firearm to inflict great bodily injury.
His sentencing was delayed multiple times after he changed legal teams and his new counsel filed a motion saying he didn’t get a fair trial because of alleged prosecutorial misconduct.
Their motion was denied on May 9, when the judge in the case ruled that he found “no error, prosecutorial misconduct or newly discovered evidence.”
The rapper was arrested for shooting fellow hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion, real name Megan Pete, in the feet after leaving a pool party at Kylie Jenner’s house in the Hollywood Hills on July 12, 2020.
