Ezekiel Elliott Accuser Discussed Using Sex Tape As Blackmail 

Yahoo’s Charles Robinson has gotten his hands on a portion of the NFL’s 160-page report on the Ezekiel Elliott domestic-violence case detailing an exchange between Elliott’s accuser, Tiffany Thompson, and an unnamed friend in which they discuss using sex videos featuring Thompson and Elliott as a means for blackmailing Elliott.

Here are the text messages, as discovered by the NFL’s investigation and published by Yahoo:

[Thompson]: What if I sold mine and Ezekiel’s sex videos

[Friend]: We’d all be millionaires

[Friend]: We could black mail him w that

[Thompson]: I want to bro

[Friend]: Let’s do it

[Thompson]: Scared

[Friend]: Shit

[Friend]: Id be like look give me 10k or I’ll just sell our sex videos for the same amount flat

[Friend]: Me and my friends tryna go on vacation and get boob jobs

(the report notes a pair of blank texts)

[Thompson]: 10k Bitch I want 20k

[Thompson]: Go big or go home

[Friend]: That’s fine too

[Friend]: Like what

Robinson reports that Elliott’s lawyers and the NFL players union plans to use this exchange during the appeals process as part of a strategy to undermine Thompson’s credibility.

Previously, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on documents in which, it said, NFL lead investigator Lisa Friel “was unable to give an clear endorsement of Thompson’s credibility because she repeatedly misled investigators.”

How witness credibility plays into the NFL’s disciplinary process is unclear. In a letter to Elliott informing him that he had been suspended for six games, the league said that advisors to league commissioner Roger Goodell had found “substantial and persuasive evidence” that Elliott had been violent toward Thompson. (The NFL’s personal-conduct policy says that a player who has not been charged with a crime can still be disciplined if there is “credible evidence” that he violated the policy.) An NFL spokesperson, asked what the “substantial and persuasive” standard means and how it compares to a preponderance-of-evidence one, was unable to clarify the issue for Deadspin.

[ Yahoo]