Marilyn Manson‘s legal team have filed a new motion to dismiss the numerous claims brought forth against the shock rocker in a lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend, actress Esmé Bianco. Bianco filed a suit against Manson on April 30th of this year, alleging she endured rape, abuse and human trafficking at the hands of Manson.
According to Billboard.com, Manson‘s new motion alleges that the various women who have recently accused him have been “cynically and dishonestly seeking to monetize and exploit the #MeToo movement.” It further claims that Bianco and several other women “spent months plotting, workshopping, and fine-tuning” her claims into “twisted tales that bear no resemblance to reality.”
Bianco is just one of four women who have filed a suit against Marilyn Manson with similar claims. Manson’s former personal assistant Ashley Walters, his former girlfriend Ashley Morgan Smithline and an unidentified woman have also filed suit against the musician.
In his new motion, Manson‘s legal team describes several of his accusers as “co-conspirators”, who are “desperately trying to conflate the imagery and artistry of [Brian] Warner’s ‘shock rock’ stage persona, ‘Marilyn Manson,’ with fabricated accounts of abuse.”
Over sixteen women have come forward with allegations against Manson thus far, several of whom went public alongside his ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood, who went public with her own allegations against the shock rocker back in February.