Source: People
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Wednesday 1 September 2021 11:36:46
Britney Spears' Lawyer Urges Her Father Jamie to Resign as Her Conservator 'Now'
Britney Spears' legal team is once again urging her father Jamie Spears to step down as her conservator.
On Monday, the pop star's attorney Mathew Rosengart filed new court documents requesting Jamie's immediate suspension while also taking aim at his Aug. 12 response to their motion to remove him as estate conservator, a role he has held for the past 13 years.
In his response, Jamie said he would be "willing to step down when the time is right" as long as there was an "orderly" transition of power and "a resolution of matters pending before the Court."
"Mr. Spears was forced to concede in his Aug. 12, 2021, 'First Response' to Britney Spears's Petition to remove him that he must depart — and his departure is now inexorable," Rosengart tells PEOPLE in a statement. "As we wrote in our new filing with the Court, however, the quid pro quo preconditions that Mr. Spears sought in his Aug. 12, 2021, court filing are inappropriate and unacceptable."
In his response, Jamie said that his voluntary resignation would be contingent upon approval of his latest accounting (including $1.4 million in attorneys' fees he incurred over the span of a year) and a substantial payment from Britney's Estate to certain third parties, including Tri-Star Sports & Entertainment Group.
"Britney Spears will not be bullied or extorted by her father," Rosengart says. "Nor does Mr. Spears have the right to try to hold his daughter hostage by setting the terms of his removal. This is not about him, it is about the best interests of his daughter, which as a matter of law, mandate his removal."
"Even putting aside the legal issues requiring his prompt removal, if he loves his daughter, Mr. Spears should resign now, today, before he is suspended," he continues. "It would be the correct and decent thing to do."
Jamie's attorney has not responded to PEOPLE's request for comment.
In the court documents filed on Monday, Rosengart also slammed what Jamie's attorney Vivian Lee Thoreen said in a recent filing about how his "sole motivation" for continuing on in the role is "his unconditional love for his daughter and a fierce desire to protect her from those trying to take advantage of her."
"While Mr. Spears professes his purported 'love' and 'support' of his daughter even as he stripped her of her autonomy and dignity and engaged in abusive conduct toward her, his First Response reveals his true motivations: to receive or make large monetary payments," Rosengart said.
"Regardless of the past, Mr. Spears and his counsel are now on notice: the status quo is no longer tolerable, and Britney Spears will not be extorted," he continued. "Mr. Spears's blatant attempt to barter suspension and removal in exchange for approximately $2 million in payments, on top of the millions already reaped from Ms. Spears's estate by Mr. Spears and his associates, is a non-starter."
Though Jamie said in his response that there were "no urgent circumstances" regarding his immediate suspension, Rosengart argued that "is false."
"The world heard Ms. Spears's courageous and compelling testimony," he said, referencing the singer's emotional June 23 testimony. "Britney Spears's life matters. Her well-being matters. Every day matters. There is no basis to wait."
Rosengart also claimed that Jamie's decision to include how he helped Britney when she was "suffering mentally and emotionally" in his response was an attempt at "redemption."
"Notwithstanding the stringent restrictions of HIPAA, he has gone so far in his filing as to discuss alleged details of Ms. Spears's mental state," he said. "Mr. Spears levies allegations of Ms. Spears's 'issues,' makes gratuitous comments on the amounts spent on Ms. Spears's medical care, questions whether Ms. Spears understands or remembers what has been done to her, and makes other inapt claims, while also attacking Conservator of the Person Jodi Montgomery." (Montgomery has stated that keeping Jamie as conservator "is not in the best interest of [Britney].")
Rosengart then noted that Jamie spent "seven pages of his Response airing grievances" with Britney's mom, his ex-wife Lynne Spears, who previously filed a petition urging the court to allow her daughter to hire her own lawyer and claimed Britney has a "fear and hatred" of Jamie.
"Lynne Spears does, indeed, support Mr. Spears's suspension and removal, but the Petition must be granted regardless of her views," Rosengart said. "As the Petition made abundantly clear, it is Mr. Spears's independent adverse impact on his daughter's life, well-being, and best interests that requires the Petition be granted. That Mr. Spears would use this solemn occasion to pick one more fight with his ex-wife (the mother of his daughter) speaks volumes."
Rosengart called on the court to suspend Jamie during the next hearing on Sept. 29 if he does not resign before then.
