Could Akademiks be in legal trouble? The polarizing podcaster is now deeply entwined in Tory Lanez’s assault case.
On Tuesday (August 8), a California judge sentenced Lanez (born Daystar Peterson) to 10 years in state prison for the 2020 shooting of Megan Thee Stallion. A jury convicted Lanez of assault with a semiautomatic handgun, having a loaded and unregistered firearm in a vehicle, and gross negligence in discharging his firearm.
Throughout the course of Lanez’s legal situation over the last three years, Akademiks became an outspoken supporter of the Canadian rapper/singer. Ak still expressed doubt about the guilty verdict as recently as last month.
In February 2022, Akademiks took part in trying to shape the public perception of Lanez’s possible innocence. Ak tweeted, “It was revealed in court [a] few moments ago that Tory Lanez DNA WAS NOT found on the weapon in the Meg Thee Stallion case.”
That statement quickly became a problem once it became clear the DNA test results were inconclusive, not definitive. Akademiks deleted the tweet, but he later blamed Megan Thee Stallion’s management company for receiving the wrong information.
Akademiks & Tory Lanez’s Father Pushed An Anti-Roc Nation Conspiracy Theory
“I got it from Roc Nation,” Akademiks tweeted in response to reports Lanez’s then-lawyer denied leaking the info to the YouTube personality. However, the current attorney representing Lanez reportedly admitted that his client was Ak’s source.
Meghann Cuniff, a reporter who’s been covering the case, stated, “The judge found that Lanez leaked it to Akademiks. Lanez’s own lawyer said that. They described that’s how it happened in the documents.”
The fact Akademiks publicly named Roc Nation representatives as the leakers could possibly put the media personality in legal trouble. Some observers question if the Jay-Z-owned company or Megan Thee Stallion have a defamation case against Ak.
Tory Lanez’s family members also pushed a conspiracy theory that Roc Nation somehow orchestrated Lanez’s conviction. Sonstar Peterson, Lanez’s father, infamously declared, “I got some names I wanna call out… [Attorney] Alex Spiro, [Roc Nation CEO] Desiree Perez, and the whole wicked system of Roc Nation, including you, Jay-Z.”