Travis Scott Getty Travis Scott appears to be the latest celebrity connected to Hollywood’s secret smear machine.
Documents show the rapper-entrepreneur’s manager coordinating with a coterie of entertainment industry operatives against an adversary by seeking out potentially discrediting information to post on a “ghost platform.”
The same individuals allegedly attacked antagonists of actress-director Rebel Wilson, music mogul Scooter Braun and wellness influencer Andrew Huberman with damaging anonymous online campaigns. (Wilson has denied involvement; Braun and Huberman haven’t commented.)
A redacted group chat from June 2024 between crisis advisor Melissa Nathan, digital fixer Jed Wallace and a third party became an exhibit earlier this year in a court case filed by publicist Stephanie Jones. That suit is related to the retaliation-centered Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni legal feud over It Ends with Us.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned the third party is David Stromberg, who has long managed Scott’s career and runs his umbrella company Cactus Jack. Other redactions in the text exchange obscure references to Astroworld, Scott’s annual music festival which in 2021 resulted in a mass-casualty crowd crush, as well as unspecified charges being dropped.
Stromberg and Scott didn’t reply to requests to discuss the matter.
David Stromberg Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images In the text exchange, Stromberg referred to the others as his “favorite team” and “the dream team.” At the start of the available conversation, Wallace assured that “I’ve got the plan for infrastructure” but cautions it “will need the most absolute secure process.”
Stromberg requested a “SOW,” or statement of work, for “him.” He never named Scott. He explained to the others that he’d like “an all in rate” for Nathan, Wallace “and Freedman,” a reference to their frequent business partner Bryan Freedman, the prominent Hollywood litigator, who is now a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by a target of one of the online campaigns. The trio didn’t respond to THR’s inquiries about the group chat. (Freedman has previously denied they’ve been involved in any misconduct, terming the claims “speculation presented as fact.”)
Jed Wallace, Melissa Nathan, Bryan Freedman Illustration by Christopher Hughes Nathan, who has long represented Scott, responded with a bullet-pointed list detailing a “multipart strategy- Legal/Crisis PR/Media/Digital” to counter what’s characterized as an alleged extortion scheme against the client. (The identity of this other individual is unknown, although the damage-control conversation took place not long after a reported brawl involving Scott at a Cannes film festival afterparty.) Accusers who seek out, or are open to, an out-of-court monetary settlement are often branded extortionists.
The proposed plan included overseeing a “forensics team who will initiate searches asap on the other party to mine and harvest all intelligence,” then utilize it to create an “external campaign to show her agenda, her credibility and point friendly reporters toward this ghost platform we create.” (Jones’ attorneys have contended that Nathan and Wallace run “a clandestine cottage industry of creating false smear websites and social media accounts targeting their adversaries and those of their clients,” describing the conduct as a “playbook.”)
In addition, Nathan detailed to Stromberg how she’ll “use our team of specialists to build all the digital (Reddit, site, X, 4 Chan, discord, etc) messaging to trend and dominate in client’s favor.” She added that the goal is not merely reputation management. “Part of this scope will be to rebuild important relationships with legal entities, judges and law enforcement both domestically and internationally.”
Two weeks later, on June 20, the text thread resumes, with Stromberg noting that “the band is [back] together,” and Nathan riposting, “we never disbanded.” The manager asks Wallace to confirm when unspecified charges “actually dropped,” noting that “Page six wil [sic] go up with it asap.” The name-brand New York Post column published a story that day headlined “Travis Scott arrested for disorderly intoxication and trespassing in Miami.”
That same day, Nathan wrote, “I had Astroworld removed from TMZ,” a comment to which Stromberg responded with a heart emoji. In 2021, 10 concertgoers were killed and hundreds injured due to a crowd surge at Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston. THR has learned that both Nathan and Wallace worked to address public-relations fallout related to the tragedy, which led to wrongful death and personal injury settlements. Two years later, a Texas grand jury declined to indict Scott or festival organizers.
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