In most recent developments in
the campaign to free Brittany, her
father apparently will be stepping
down as conservator, although
there is some debate as to what
the timeline will be and exactly
why that might be happening.
So to catch you up, Britney Spears
recently came forward publicly with
serious accusations against her
father, saying she was overworked
without any breaks, drugged with
lithium, and prohibited from having
more children after her
conservators did not allow her to
remove her birth control device.
The pop star added she wanted
to charge Jamie Spears, her father,
with conservatorship abuse.
So, there are the possibilities of
additional legal efforts ongoing,
those might be influencing some of
what's going on behind the scenes.
But we want to give you a little
bit of the court filing that
Britney Spears' father recently
submitted, saying, there are,
in fact, no actual grounds for
suspending or removing Mr. Spears
as the conservator of the Estate.
And it is highly debatable whether
a change in conservator at this
time would be in Ms.
Spears' best interests.
Nevertheless, even as Mr.
Spears is the unremitting target of
unjustified attacks, he is after
all the main victim in all this,
he does not believe that a public
battle with his daughter over his
continuing services as
her conservator would be in her
best interests.
So even though he must contest this
unjustified petition for
his removal, Mr.
Spears intends to work with
the court and his daughter's new
attorney to prepare for an orderly
transition to new conservator.
Going on to say that he's
continuing to serve dutifully, and
there's false accusations, and
a whole bunch of other stuff.
All of it's available for
you to read online if you want.
So Adrienne, I want to go to you,
so how significant is this change?
And is this simply like acceding
to her wishes or
do you think that there might be
some other reason for the change?
>> I think the change is coming
as a result of potential backlash
in addition to the possibility that
Jamie Spears could essentially face
more exposure in terms of people
looking behind and
jumping into records, diving in.
That is what Britney Spears'
attorney Matthew Rosengart is
aiming to do to depose Jamie Spears
to see, hey,
how was this money spent?
How have you
been acting as the conservator
over this conservatorship?
Because one thing we do know is
that Jamie Spears was making about
$5 million from Britney Spears'
conservatorship.
He is in a position where he was
filling his pockets and
claiming that it was in his
daughter's best interest.
So Brittany's attorney
Matthew Rosengart will, as he has
said, he will be looking deeper.
He's going to be jumping into
account doing audits and
seeing how was this money spent and
was it spent in a way that it did
further that conservatorship,
because if not,
there are some people who are going
to have to owe money and pay back
what they took from Brittany.
>> I mean, first of all, I think
there's a rule when you have
conversations about things like
that, that somebody on every panel
has to say, I wouldn't want to be
around their table at Thanksgiving,
and then everybody can chuckle.
So I'll do that, but
I didn't mean it.
Look, I mean, I'm obviously
going to defer to the lawyer here,
and what agent says is far more
learned than what I know.
But it does seem as if the lawyers
got in touch with Jamie Spears and
said, hey man, we gotta go in
another direction here.
And I don't know very much about
conservatorship and the abuses, but
if it's
happening to Britney Spears,
it means it's happening to a lot of
people that you've never heard of.
So, that's what's cool about
the law, is the cases like this
become landmark.
And people can say,
it's Britney Spears,
it's a soft story.
This is anything but a soft story,
and not every conservatorship has
to do with as much money or
as much control, but
this will impact other people.
And I think there's an importance
to that.
>> Yeah, there's more of this.
I want to give the response from
the attorney for Britney Spears.
But first I have a question for
you, Adrienne.
So we will eventually get to
the fact that they
still plan investigations.
As you point out, he's already made
millions of dollars,
which I just cannot
believe how that is possible.
But do we expect that if there
are some sorts of civil lawsuits
against him, I'm assuming that they
could go after that money, right?
>> Absolutely,
they can go after whatever he's
holding to disgorge whatever he had
taken from the conservatorship.
That was not lawful,
it wasn't reasonable.
It was not really anything more
than an abuse of his power, because
he's had this conservatorship of
Brittany for at least, I believe,
13 years since 2008, claiming that
she basically couldn't take care of
herself, because that's generally
what conservatorships are for.
But this woman is an adult.
I believe she has two children who
are probably
in their older teens now.
And she is entitled to spend
the money that she earned and
works so hard for
however she wants to spend it.
And this thought that her father
had said,
you all have not seen the drug use,
you haven't seen what goes on
behind closed doors, who even knows
what her father's thoughts truly
are in the sentiment?
But I can tell you, the fact that
this woman here is being controlled
to the extent she is under this
conservatorship should really
raise a lot of red flags for
a considerable number of people.
>> Yeah, there's a lot that I
don't know.
I am not just not a lawyer, but
I'm basically the opposite of one.
But, the fear seems to be that
she'll waste her money, okay?
They don't see the drug use that
goes by indoors.
Okay, Jamie Spears,
how much do you drink?
On average a week, how much?
Have you ever done weed?
What, we're expecting that he's
some sort of like teetotaler or
something?
I understand that there are legal
implications if they're saying that
she's literally breaking the law, I
suppose, even though I don't think
that those laws should be there.
But if she's not literally breaking
the law, I don't understand
how considerations about
her potentially wasting her
money even enter into it.
How does that even become a part of
this conversation?
>> Exactly, she is an adult.
So whether she chooses to spend all
of her money on pot and
hang out on the couch all day, that
is something she is entitled to do.
And so allowing her to be an adult
and to use, spend, and
do whatever she wants with
the money she's earned,
that is what she's entitled to.
And by virtue of the fact
that her father was able to step in
those years ago and
make this conservatorship permanent
is wild, and it is wild that
it is still going on.
And as Michael has noted, it really
should signal to us that there
are a lot of people out there who
may be subject to conservatorships
that are completely unlawful.
And yet you have a conservator
who is taking
money just like Jamie Spears is and
continuing to enjoy just profiting
off controlling someone else.
>> Yeah, well, I want to jump to
where they're attempting to make
sure that we know that there will
still be these investigations.
Matthew Rosengart, the attorney for
Britney Spears, says, we look
forward to continuing our vigorous
investigation into the conduct of
Mr. Spears, and others,
over the past 13 years while he
reaped millions of dollars from his
daughter's estate, and I look
forward to taking Mr. Spears' sworn
deposition in the near future.
So there had been a previous
reference to,
I'll step down totally, but
I want it to be orderly and I want
the court to, in their words,
include a resolution of matters
pending before the court.
So is it possible that as a part of
stepping down as the conservator,
he could be protected from any
future challenges or
investigations?
Is that something that
a judge would allow
considering what Britney Spears and
her lawyer have said?
>> No, I don't believe that that
would be a possibility.
Anything is kind of possible to
court order doesn't mean it can be
overturned.
But in this circumstance here,
where there are potential
allegations that Jamie Spears was
using the conservatorship
improperly, or taking funds that
were excessive and were not serving
the conservatorship,
that is something that the court
should want looked into.
Because we have to remember,
conservatorships are used to
protect people who cannot
necessarily take care of
themselves.
These are people who maybe they're
suffering from mental health, or
some kind of mental illness, or
something in some way has made it
so that they cannot truly care for
themselves.
And so they need the court to
oversee it to a certain extent.
So in the event that Jamie Spears
was abusing his power as
being the conservator
of this conservatorship,
I think that that is something that
the court would just very much be
interested in diving into, and
seeing that he be exposed, and also
seeing him being held to account.
>> Yeah, Michael, any thoughts
about where this might go?
>> I wouldn't want to be around
their table at Thanksgiving.
>> Awkward [LAUGH] Finally,
let me just throw it out there and
see if either of you have thoughts
about this.
So, of course, I understand that
this should be clear, but I think
the news that he is stepping down
or at least plans to step down,
people have been pretty worked up
about this, especially for the past
few months where it's reentered
the popular consciousness.
But, of course, it's not the same
as, she will now be free,
he will step down and some other
conservator will be appointed.
I guess the implication is
that it's someone that her and
her lawyer would be more favorable
towards.
So I guess that's an improvement of
her condition, but how significant
of an improvement is that?
>> I think it could really change
things significantly,
because if this individual is
more objective and neutral and
realizes that they have a job and
their job isn't to pilfer off their
daughter's estate and
everything their daughters worked
for, then I think it would be more
likely that there's a possibility
that Brittney could
essentially go free, shall we say.
Because who we need in that role is
someone who is truly objective and
neutral, and who is willing to step
aside, and to also tell the court,
hey, there is no need for
this conservatorship to continue to
stay into place,
we think that she should be able
to manage her own money,
things are fine, we'll move on.
As opposed to the position
Jamie Spears has taken,
which is a thought that,
my daughter is unstable, unhealthy,
you don't see what goes on behind
the scene, she needs me to protect
her, patriarchal nonsense.
And so getting someone in that role
who would actually do the job and
do it objectively is really what
Britney needs in this situation.