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MusicCardi BAug 27, 2025

Cardi B Takes the Stand, Tells Court What an Altercation Is and Isn’t: ‘We’re Having a Debate'

Cardi is in court in Los Angeles for a civil assault trial stemming from a 2018 incident.

By Precious Fondren
Photo by Francois Durand/Getty Images

Cardi B can’t help but be charming—even in court. 

The rapper is back in a Los Angeles courtroom for a civil assault trial, but true to form, she’s got the entire room laughing. While on the stand this week, Cardi was asked about everything from the authenticity of her voluminous hair to whether she even knew what a “verbal altercation” was.

“When you say there was a verbal altercation, do you know what the word altercation means?” asked Rob Rosen, a lawyer for plaintiff Emani Ellis.

“Like a conflict,” Cardi shot back. “It was like a verbal fight, but it didn’t get physical at all.”

@meghannmcuniff

Cardi B @Cardi B will return to the witness stand tomorrow after testifying for about 50 minutes in her civil assault trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court today (Tuesday, August 26, day 2). Cardi is being sued by Emani Ellis, a now-former security guard at a medical center who claims Cardi assaulted her while pregnant and there for an appointment with an OB-GYN in February 2018. Ellis claims Cardi spit on her and called her the n-word racial epithet. Ellis' lawyer Rob Rosen is a little, uh, rough around the edges in his questioning and entire approach to the trial, and his questioning of Cardi today exemplified this. He focused so much on the process and responses to discovery and witness disclosures, and he couldn't get through the questioning without Judge Ian Fusselman sustaining an objection from Cardi's lawyer Peter Anderson. Fusselman sustained Anderson's objection for relevance when Rosen asked Cardi about her ethnic background, but he then asked if she considers herself African American and she answered, "I consider myself Afro Caribbean." "Have you ever used the N-word with Ms. Emani Ellis?" Rosen asked today. "No," Cardi answered. You can watch Cardi’s testify about the encounter here @Meghann Cuniff. #celebrity #cardib #law #court #news

♬ original sound - Meghann Cuniff

When the lawyer pushed further, asking if their courtroom exchange counted as a verbal altercation, Cardi grinned and deflected. 

“We’re having a debate,” she said, playfully shaking her head. Cue the jury and TikTok cracking up.

Independent reporter Meghann Cuniff, better known online as Meghann the Reporter, posted a clip of the exchange, and of course the jokes flowed.

“She got the jury laughing she’s not going to have to pay a dime 😂😂😂,” one person commented. 

Another chimed in saying, "She’s so naturally funny.” 

And one person called out how fast the lawyer followed up with the next question.

"He so mad she took over the room 😂😂😂,' they wrote.

The case itself stems from a 2018 incident. Emani Ellis, a former security guard, claims Cardi assaulted her while at an OBGYN appointment. But Cardi dismissed it with her usual bluntness.

“She didn’t hit me. I didn’t hit her. There was no touch, so to me it wasn’t no incident," she said on the stand. 

All this courtroom buzz comes just weeks before the release of her long-awaited second album, Am I the Drama? It will be her first in seven years. 

Speaking with Zane Lowe about its theme, Cardi admitted she was “trying so much to be unproblematic, me trying to avoid drama, avoid the disses, avoid the bitches, avoid the talks. It’s like that shit is dying, that’s dying out in me.”

 She continued: “Because I’m really about to show you, bitch, that you are not fucking with me.”

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