New York: Embattled comedian Bill Cosby has hired a battalion of private investigators to dig up dirt on his many accusers.
The 77-year-old comedian, who is fighting an onslaught of accusations that he sexually assaulted more than two dozen women over many years, is paying six-figure fees to private investigators for information that might discredit his alleged victims, reported New York Post.
Multiple sources confirmed that Cosby, through his Hollywood attorney Martin Singer, is implementing a scorched-earth strategy in which anything negative in his accusers' pasts is fair game.
"At least one California-based firm with a half-dozen former LAPD detectives on staff is muckraking for Cosby," a source said.
"If you're going to say to the world that I did this to you, then the world needs to know, 'What kind of person are you? Who is this person that's saying it?'?" Cosby told his legal and public-relations team at a recent meeting, according to an insider who was present.
"You can't say that I put something in your coffee, threw you in a cab and then you go on and live a high-profile life, a famous life and you never complain," Cosby said, referring to supermodel Beverly Johnson, who claimed Cosby spiked her cappuccino during a visit to his home in the 1980s, the source said.
The insider said they have also been able to dig up information on another accuser Katherine McKee, an ex-girlfriend of the late Sammy Davis Jr who said Cosby raped her in the 1970s.
The comedian's investigators were immediately able to dig up internet posts in which McKee allegedly praised Cosby's stand-up act and wrote glowingly of him.
They also discovered a published interview in which she said she is "used to lying." PTI
