Britney Spears’s father, James “Jamie” Spears, used a secret recording device to record her in her bedroom, a private investigator concluded according to new legal papers.
The revelation came in a filing ahead of a court date where the pop star’s attorneys were to meet with Jamie and Lynn Spears’ lawyers regarding Britney’s estate paying their attorney fees.
According to the paperwork filed by the pop star’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart, obtained by E! News, Former FBI agent Sherine Ebadi reached the conclusion following an investigation she carried out into claims that Jamie instructed the firm Black Box Security to install the device. The allegations first surfaced in a New York Times documentary last year.
Ebadi works as an associate managing director for the Forensic Investigations and Intelligence practice of Kroll Associates, an investigation and consulting firm that has been hired by Britney Spears’ team.
Jamie Spears allegedly had Britney Spears’ room bugged
Allegations that Britney’s room was bugged first emerged when Alex Vlasov, a former employee of Black Box Security, talked with New York Times reporters for the filming of their 2021 documentary Controlling Britney Spears.
He said at the time of the company’s president Edan Yemini, “Edan had an audio recording device put into Britney’s bedroom.”
He went on to allege that his boss “and one of the agents working with him came into my office and handed me the audio recording device and a USB drive and asked me to wipe it.”
He continued, “I had them tell me what was on it. They seemed very nervous and said that it was extremely sensitive, that nobody can ever know about this and that’s why I need to delete everything on it so there’s no record of it.
“That raised so many red flags for me and I did not want to be complicit in whatever they were involved in. So I kept a copy because I didn’t want to delete evidence.”
According to Ebadi’s investigation, she “corroborated” claims that Britney’s father instructed Black Box Security to install the secret recording device in Britney’s room so that he could monitor her private conversations, particularly her conversations with her attorney.
Ebadi said she was told that the device was installed by a Black Box Security employee who “did so by duct-taping it behind furniture so it could not be seen, and that he added a separate battery pack to the recording device to permit continuous recording for a longer period of time.”
Britney’s communications with her lawyer were allegedly monitored until at least 2020 when Vaslov was reportedly told to stop reviewing attorney-client communications.
‘180 hours of conversations’ by Britney Spears were recorded
The recordings were said to have gathered 180 hours of conversations between Britney and others.
The California Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA) “requires that all parties consent to a recording of their confidential conversations.” Failing to gain permission could mean those who carry out the recordings face legal consequences.
However, after Vlasov’s comments initially surfaced last year, Jamie’s lawyer gave a statement to New York Times reporters saying, “All of his [Jamie’s] actions were well within the parameters of the authority conferred upon him by the court.
“His actions were done with the knowledge and consent of Britney, her court-appointed attorney, and/or the court. Jamie’s record as conservator — and the court’s approval of his actions — speak for themselves.”
In the New York Times documentary, Vlasov also alleged that Britney’s team monitored her iPhone by connecting an iPad on the same iCloud account so they could see phone calls, text messages, notes, browser histories, and photos.
In separate legal issues for Britney, it emerged earlier this week that she sent her sister Jamie Lynn a cease and desist letter on Monday in response to remarks Jamie has made about the singer while promoting her new book.