Drake will not be sitting through a deposition in the XXXTentacion murder trial, a judge has ruled. As previously reported, the rapper’s lawyer, Bradford Cohen, filed a motion this week to toss the subpoena which required him to attend the deposition later this month.
Judge Michael A. Usan has since accepted Drake’s motion and agreed that he will not be questioned in the trial pertaining to XXX’s death in June 2018. His decision comes after defense attorney Mauricio Padilla had asserted that the “God’s Plan” hitmaker needed to sit for a deposition to discuss a supposed old beef he had with the late rapper.
The lawyer in XXXTENTACION’s case believes Drake & Migos could possibly be the killers 🤔 pic.twitter.com/u2kEB7bAgy
— SAY CHEESE! 👄🧀 (@SaycheeseDGTL) February 8, 2023
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Cohen argued in his motion that his client wouldn’t be able to provide any relevant information about the actual case, but Drake isn’t entirely off the hook just yet. According to TMZ, Padilla could potentially contend the ruling by piecing together evidence that could get him deposed for a matter concerning XXX’s passing. So far, however, Drake remains off the hook.
Some fans will recall how XXX shockingly claimed in a later-deleted social media post that if anything was to happen to him, Drake would have been responsible for it. “If anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi,” he is alleged to have said, referring to Drake’s Instagram handle.
It’s also important to note that prosecutors never accused Drake of having any involvement in the death of XXX. This was information given to them by Padilla, who felt strongly about deposing the Canadian-born superstar to quiz him about how bad his feud with XXX had gotten prior to his death.
In the motion, Drake’s lawyer wrote, “It would appear, based on the names mentioned on the witness list filed by defendant’s counsel, that the intent to subpoena [Drake] is less for the purpose of discovering relevant evidence and testimony, but instead add more layers of celebrity and notoriety to a tragic and unfortunate event.”
Fans dig up old lyrics where Drake allegedly sneak disses XXXTENTACION 👀 pic.twitter.com/Dr9xGaaPdc
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) February 10, 2023
As for Judge Usan, he noted in his response to the motion, “In order to ensure the due process rights of the defendant, and full discovery to make sure every avenue is being explored and nothing’s been left untouched, my thought is, if your client were to have this electronic deposition, you could certainly limit the scope and area of it,”
“I am prepared to enter an order, because I’m well aware that a lot of people are titillated by, ‘Oh, look who’s involved.’ The gossip and the rumors and everyone just want to run wild with these things. I’m prepared to say that such discovery deposition shall remain sealed…Not to be released to the public. Not out there. Picture of Drake testifying. I can understand why he’s not interested in that. And shouldn’t be.”