Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt continue to exchange legal papers following their acrimonious split in 2016. (Associated Press)
A lawyer for Brad Pitt has responded to abuse allegations detailed in a legal document filed by ex-wife Angelina Jolie this week, saying Pitt will not acquiesce to false allegations. On Friday, Jolie’s attorney added his own comments to the dispute.
“Brad has owned everything he is responsible for from day one – unlike the other side – but he will not own anything he hasn’t done,” Pitt’s attorney Anne Kiley said in a statement to The Times on Thursday .
While Jolie’s allegations made big headlines this week, they’re not exactly new. Those in this week’s filing closely mirror those in an FBI document released in August, with one notable addition: In Tuesday’s filing, Jolie alleged that Pitt choked one of his children on a private flight during the divorce-precipitating incident in 2016 from France to the US It is also alleged that a drunk Pitt hit another child in the face.
The FBI and Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services both investigated Jolie’s allegations shortly after that flight, around the time the “Girl, Interrupted” actor was filing for divorce. Pitt was never charged in connection with the incident, either by US Attorneys or on the advice of DCFS.
A Los Angeles law enforcement source told The Times in 2016 that no beatings or beatings had been alleged. Pitt told GQ in 2017 that he quit drinking after “drinking too much” while married to Jolie.
Since then, Kiley said in Thursday’s statement, Pitt “has been on the receiving end of all manner of personal attacks and misrepresentations. … Brad will continue to respond in court as he has consistently done.”
A Pitt representative declined to comment further.
However, Paul Murphy, an attorney for Jolie, contradicted the testimony from the Pitt camp late Friday.
“Clearly, the carefully worded statement from Brad Pitt’s divorce attorney, Ms. Kiley, did not address the very serious allegations in our counterclaim. Mr. Pitt has been accused of harming his children and has not denied any specifics of his heinous behavior,” he said. “Instead, he continues his attempts to misinform and distract as he has done for the past six years Has.”
The story goes on
Eve Sheedy, former executive director of the LA County Domestic Violence Council and former director of domestic violence policy at the LA City Attorney’s Office, noted Friday that in situations akin to Pitt and Jolie’s, it’s not uncommon for an abusive partner to have “power.” and seek to exercise control” through means other than physical force, including control of finances and decision-making.
“It takes courage for any survivor, particularly those like Ms. Jolie, who faces intense public scrutiny to come forward and expose acts of abuse that have been both chilling and dangerous,” Sheedy said in a statement.[I]In cases involving specific behavior, general non-specific denial of responsibility and an effort to blame others reflect another tactic that can be used to further manipulate survivors.”
Jolie included the detailed allegations of abuse in a counterclaim to a breach of contract lawsuit Pitt filed against her in February, seeking to reverse the sale of her half of Chateau Miraval and its winery to Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of Stoli Group. Pitt said in the lawsuit the couple agreed that neither would sell their stake without the other’s consent.
Jolie’s counterclaim states that no such agreement, written, oral, or implied, ever existed.
The filing states that the purchase of Chateau Miraval in 2008 was “meticulously documented by attorneys from at least three countries” due to the complicated ownership structure prior to Pitt and Jolie’s takeover. Pitt’s CEO is then quoted as saying, “Early on in the process, I raised the issue of a purchase/sale agreement between A and B, but Brad said it wasn’t necessary for two sane people to have such an agreement.”
The Maleficent actor said in the filing that negotiations between her and Pitt to sell their stake in the property collapsed just before it was all finalized when he required her to sign a non-disclosure agreement as part of the deal.
That NDA allegedly would have prevented them from discussing details of what happened on the 2016 flight.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.