Britney Spears has been granted a restraining order against her former manager.
The ‘Toxic’ hitmaker sought protection from Sam Lutfi – who looked after her career from 2007 to 2008 – for herself and her family earlier this week and on Wednesday (08.05.19), a judge agreed he should stay away from them until a full hearing on the matter can take place on May 28.
According to documents obtained by The Blast, the 37-year-old singer – who also sought protection for her parents, Jamie and Lynne Spears, and her sons Sean Preston, 13, and 12-year-old Jayden – claimed she and her loved ones had received harassing and threatening texts and tweets to them and argued his actions had caused her "severe mental trauma" while interfering with her life.
Britney’s legal team argued Sam has been trying to use "vigilante action, bribes and release of private information" to interfere with the conservatorship in place to look after the ‘Womanizer’ singer’s affairs, and wanted a restraining order to "prevent future harm and further psychological trauma."
Sam allegedly sent Lynne a text which read: "You are the one that’s been breaking your back for your children your entire life and yet you are still having to answer to people that have done nothing for your family yet they are in charge."
A lawyer acting for Sam branded the ruling disappointing and vowed to fight it.
They said: "We are disappointed in the results. We feel this is overly broad and violates Mr. Lutfi’s constitutional rights. This is only temporary and we look forward to arguing the matter more fully at the hearing for a more permanent restraining order on May 28th."
According to Sam’s opposition filing, he insisted he hasn’t contacted Britney since 2009 and doesn’t feel an order should be granted based on tweets about the singer and texts to her mother.
He argued he hadn’t caused "substantial emotional distress" and believes the move to block him is an attack on freedom of speech.
Despite his arguments, the judge told him to stay at least 200 yards away from Britney, her children and her parents.