Content warning: This story discusses sexual assault and rape.
After being publicly accused of abuse in February 2021, musician Marilyn Manson is taking his ex-fiancée Evan Rachel Wood to court for defamation, according to court documents obtained by E! News on March 2.
Manson (real name Brian Warner) filed a complaint in the Los Angeles Supreme Court against the Westworld actress and her alleged "on-again, off-again romantic partner" Ashley Gore. He is seeking compensation for damages and an injunction preventing "future wrongful conduct."
The lawsuit states that Wood and Gore "publicly cast" Manson "as a rapist and abuser," calling it "a malicious falsehood that has derailed Warner's successful music, TV, and film career."
E! News has reached out to Gore and to Wood's rep for comment and has not heard back.
In the lawsuit, which asks for a trial by jury, Manson alleges that Wood—whom he dated from 2006 to 2010—committed multiple offences with Gore including impersonating an FBI agent and recruiting and pressuring others to share false accusations about him.
It also states that Gore slandered Warner, created fictitious email accounts under his name, "swatted" him in February 2021 and hacked his computer files and social media accounts.
As part of the lawsuit, the singer claims that the pair "impersonated an actual agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by forging and distributing a fictitious letter from the agent." The complaint also included an alleged screenshot of a conversation between Wood and Gore in which they allegedly discussed the letter together.
"The letter, which Wood and Gore attributed to a real-life federal agent and included a forged signature and fake phone number for that agent, stated that there was an ongoing law enforcement investigation into Warner and there was concern for the safety of Wood, other ‘victims' of Warner, and their families," the complaint read. "The federal agent whose name and alleged signature appear on the letter has confirmed that she did not author that letter, had no knowledge of the letter, did not authorize or approve the letter, and has never been involved in any criminal investigation of Warner."
It continued, "The purported federal agency that the letter associates with the agent, the ‘Federal Violent Crimes Division,' does not even appear to exist."
The document also alleges that Wood "lied under penalty of perjury" when she quoted the letter as evidence in a California custody case as part of her reasoning for moving her son, Jack, to Tennessee.
In addition, the lawsuit said that Wood and Gore "secret recruited, coordinated, and pressured prospective accusers to emerge simultaneously with allegations of rape and abuse against Warner, and brazenly claim that it took ten or more years to ‘realize' their consensual relationships with Warner were supposedly abusive."
Manson's team said that the pair "encouraged prospective accusers to fabricate, change, embellish, and exaggerate their stories," including allegations that Manson raped or trafficked them but that they were too scared to speak out.
It added, "Gore provided prospective accusers with a checklist of twenty-one fabricated acts of abuse to ensure that their public claims against Warner would mirror each other and create the fake perception of a pattern of wrongful conduct."
The lawsuit included a picture of a reported checklist, which listed multiple sexually and physically abusive acts including "blood drinking," "sleep deprivation" and being "forced to eat on a specific eating schedule."
The musician's recent legal filing comes less than two weeks ahead of the release of Phoenix Rising, a two-part docuseries that in part examines Wood's allegations against Manson. It's set to debut on HBO Max on March 14.
The first part of the Amy Berg-directed series premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and featured a clip where Wood shared that she was "essentially raped on-camera" while filming the 2007 music video for Manson's single "Heart-Shaped Glasses."
Manson's lawyers denied the allegations in a statement to E! News at the time, writing that he "did not have sex with Evan on that set, and she knows that is the truth."
E! News also reached out to HBO—which is not a defendant—for comment on the lawsuit but has not heard back.