Ashley Morgan Smithline has retracted the allegations of violence against Marilyn Manson, specifically the allegations of rape and assault. The woman she claims was manipulated and acted influenced by other alleged victims, such as Evan Rachel Wood.
Ashley Smithline had sued Marilyn Manson in 2021, accusing him of luring her into her home in Los Angeles and raping her. Then other complaints appeared from the same model regarding abuse suffered between 2010 and 2013, always denied by the singer and never brought forward by the model who never indicated a lawyer within the terms of the law to carry on the case.
Smithline, therefore, in her retraction explained that she was contacted in 2020 by another woman who had reported the violence by the singer. This is Ashley Walters, former assistant of the artist. Walters, along with other girls allegedly involved in the abuse ring, called on Smithline to join the public complaints against Marilyn Manson.
The model then let herself be convinced and decided to meet the other women, filming everything. The footage is part of a documentary called Phoenix Rising. She said in a statement: "I succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and his group to make unsubstantiated allegations of rape and assault against Mr.
Warner. I remember Wood asking me if I had ever been whipped, shackled, bound, cut, attacked while I was sleeping, beaten, or raped. When I told her it hadn't happened to me, Wood replied that just because I didn't remember it didn't necessarily mean it hadn't happened.
I began to believe that what happened to Wood and Esmé Bianco, it happened to me too." She later revealed that she was not even the first person to write the statement in which she denounced the singer for the attacks, then published on social media.
Ilma Gore, a friend of Wood, would have done it, who in turn tried to convince Smithline to report. She would have given Gore the credentials of her social profiles to publish the public complaint. Smithline's version was quickly denied by a spokesperson for Evan Rachel Wood.
It is not known what actually happened, but Smithline followed up with the brainwashing thesis by also involving the lawyer who represented her against Manson. According to the model, the lawyer would not have allowed her to retract her allegations before filing them.
Smithline claims that the lawyer pressured her to give interviews, such as the one with The View or People. The lawyer replied that the accusations made against him by the model are false. She declined to make further statements.
• Marilyn Manson Defamation Case: Ashley Morgan Smithline Recants SA Claims