The former associate of the “Men in Black” actor accused Pinkett Smith of inflicting emotional distress and orchestrating a “smear campaign” against him.

Jada Pinkett Smith wins $30K in lawsuit against Will Smith’s alleged ex-friend who claimed she threatened him

The former associate of the "Men in Black" actor accused Pinkett Smith of inflicting emotional distress and orchestrating a "smear campaign" against him.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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on May 21, 2026 12:47 p.m. ET

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith in Los Angeles on Nov. 30, 2022. Credit:

Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

- Jada Pinkett Smith has won $30k in a countersuit against Will Smith's alleged ex-friend Bilaal Salaam. - In his own lawsuit last year, Salaam accused Pinkett Smith of threatening him if he continued "telling her personal business." - Salaam alleged that she launched a "smear campaign" against him after he refused to participate in "crisis management" PR for Smith's Oscars altercation with Chris Rock.

Jada Pinkett Smith just scored a big win in court.

A Los Angeles judge ordered Bilaal Salaam — a former associate and alleged close friend of her husband, Will Smith — to pay her $32,836 in attorney costs and fees in a hearing on May 18, according to documents obtained and reviewed by PEOPLE.

Last November, Salaam accused the *Matrix Reloaded* actress of intentional infliction of emotional distress in a lawsuit, which has been reviewed by **. Salaam, who is credited as Will Smith's assistant on *Ali* and a production assistant on *The Legend of Bagger Vance*, alleged that Pinkett Smith and members of her entourage threatened him during a 2021 incident.

Pinkett Smith pushed back against Salaam's lawsuit in a countersuit in February and struck several of Salaam's causes of action, according to an April 20 filing previously obtained and reviewed by PEOPLE.

At the time, she requested that Salaam pay $49,181.23 for "her reasonable attorneys' fees incurred" in her counter-filing. The court lowered the amount because some of Pinkett Smith's attorneys billed at "high hourly rates" and spent "excessive" time analyzing complaints and drafting motions, per the ruling, but Salaam must now pay her back for most of the costs incurred.

In a statement last December after filing his suit, Salaam claimed to EW, "Ms. Pinkett Smith, along with her close associates, including her husband, Will Smith, orchestrated a coordinated smear campaign intended to silence me, damage my credibility, and retaliate against me for speaking truthfully."**

Jada Pinkett Smith in Los Angeles on May 30, 2024.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

In his complaint, Salaam called himself Smith's "best friend" of four decades, and claimed that at a private birthday party for the actor in Calabasas, Calif., Pinkett Smith threatened that "if he continued 'telling her personal business,' he would 'end up missing or catch a bullet,' and demanded he sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) 'or else.'" The complaint also claimed that Pinkett Smith was flanked by approximately seven of her associates from her entourage during the alleged confrontation, and that one of those associates allegedly followed him to his car "while continuing to issue verbal threats."

Elsewhere in the complaint, Salaam claimed that he rejected a request from actor Duane Martin to help Smith with "crisis management" PR after the *King Richard* star slapped Chris Rock on stage during the ceremony. The plaintiff said that he "refused" to assist with the alleged PR campaign because "his conscience would not allow him to be involved in any cover-up or deceptive PR campaign" — and also claimed that after his refusal, Martin said Pinkett Smith would cause Salaam "serious problems."

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Salaam then alleged that "individuals closely associated with" Smith and Pinkett Smith launched "a retaliatory campaign" against him, and that "threats escalated" once they learned that he was writing "a whistleblower memoir" about his time working with the couple.

Additionally, after Salaam publicly claimed that he witnessed Smith and Martin having sex years ago on *Unwine With Tasha K* in 2023 — which both Smith and Pinkett Smith denied — he alleged that the *Gotham* actress "began a coordinated media smear campaign" against him.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith in Santa Monica, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2022.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Salaam specifically cited Pinkett Smith's 2023 appearance on *The Breakfast Club* accusing him of a "money shakedown" and her subsequent claim to TMZ that "we're suing" Salaam as grounds for his causes of action, claiming that the *Madagascar* actress "never filed a lawsuit." He also claimed that Pinkett Smith's public denial of an alleged sexual incident between Smith and another man was a "deliberate effort to discredit" him.

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He also made several claims of alleged instances in which Pinkett Smith and her associates attempted to "intimidate, bribe, and suppress" him that "constitute extreme and outrageous conduct." He alleged that as a result of the aforementioned allegations, he has experienced "financial loss, reputational destruction, emotional trauma, physical health deterioration, and the complete derailment of his personal life and career." He was seeking at least $3 million in special damages, plus general, exemplary, and punitive damages and a public retraction of Pinkett Smith's statements.

Salaam is still seeking $3 million in damages, along with interest, costs of the suit, and the public retraction. However, at the hearing this week, the judge denied his immediate request to bring the matter to trial, ordering both him and Pinkett Smith to first attend a case management conference in August.

Representatives for Pinkett Smith, Smith, and Salaam did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.**

[*This article has been to include Pinkett Smith's lawsuit victory on May 18, 2026.*]**

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