Travis Scott appears to be the latest celebrity linked to Hollywood’s secret smear machine.
Documents show the rapper and businessman’s manager coordinated with a clique of entertainment industry insiders against an adversary by seeking out potentially discrediting information to post on a “ghost platform.”
The same individuals allegedly attacked rivals of actress and director Rebel Wilson, music mogul Scooter Braun, and health influencer Andrew Huberman through malicious, anonymous online campaigns. (Wilson denied involvement, and Brown and Hoberman did not comment.)
An edited group chat from June 2024 between crisis counselor Melissa Nathan, digital fixer Jed Wallace and a third party became exposed earlier this year in a lawsuit filed by publicist Stephanie Jones. This lawsuit is related to the legal dispute revolving around revenge between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni. And it ends with us.
Hollywood Reporter I learned that the third party was David Stromberg, who has long managed Scott’s career and runs his umbrella company, Cactus Jack. Other redactions in the text exchange made vague references to Astroworld, Scott’s annual music festival that in 2021 led to a crushing crowd of victims, as well as the dropping of unspecified charges.
Stromberg and Scott did not respond to requests to discuss the matter.
In a text message exchange, Stromberg referred to the others as his “favorite team” and “dream team.” At the start of the available conversation, Wallace confirmed “I’ve got the infrastructure plan” but warned it would “need the most secure operations ever.”
Stromberg requested a “SOW” or Statement of Work “For It.” Scott was never mentioned. He explained to the others that he wanted a “blanket rate” for Nathan, Wallace and Friedman, a reference to their frequent business partner Brian Friedman, a prominent Hollywood lawyer who is now a defendant in a defamation suit brought by one of the targets of an online campaign. The trio did not respond THRInquiries about group chat. (Friedman has previously denied they engaged in any misconduct, calling the allegations “speculation presented as fact.”)
Nathan, who has long represented Scott, responded with a pointed list detailing a “multi-part strategy – legal/crisis/PR/media/digital” to counter what is described as an alleged extortion scheme against the client. (The identity of this other person is unknown, although the damage control conversation took place shortly after an altercation involving Scott occurred at a Cannes Film Festival after-party.) Defendants who seek, or are open to, an out-of-court financial settlement are often labeled as extortionists.
The proposed plan involved supervising “a forensic team that would begin searches as quickly as possible on the other end to dig in and gather all the intelligence,” and then use it to create “an external campaign to show its agenda and credibility and direct friendly reporters toward this ghost platform we are creating.” (Jones’ lawyers alleged that Nathan and Wallace ran a “secret cottage industry of creating false libel websites and social media accounts targeting their opponents and those of their clients,” calling the conduct a “playbook.”)
Additionally, Nathan explained to Stromberg how she will “use our team of specialists to build all digital messaging (Reddit, site, X, 4 Chan, discord, etc.) to trend and dominate for the client.” She added that the goal is not just reputation management. “Part of this scope will be rebuilding important relationships with legal entities, judges and law enforcement both domestically and internationally.”
Two weeks later, on June 20, the text message thread resumed, with Stromberg noting that “the band is in [back] “Together,” to which Nathan responded, “We never broke up.” The manager asked Wallace to confirm when “the unspecified charges were actually dropped,” noting that “Page Six will be dropped.” [sic] Get in it as quickly as possible.” Brand name New York Post The column ran a story that day titled “Travis Scott Arrested for Disorderly Intoxication and Trespassing in Miami.”
That same day, Nathan wrote: “I’ve removed Astroworld from TMZ,” a comment to which Stromberg responded with a heart emoji. In 2021, 10 concertgoers were killed and hundreds injured due to surging crowds at the Scott Astroworld festival in Houston. THR I learned that both Nathan and Wallace worked to address the 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 the festival organizers.
