Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Kimberly White-POOL/Getty Images, Marc Piasecki/WireImage

The executors of Michael Jackson’s estate have asked for more than $100,000 in costs and attorneys’ fees for their ongoing legal dispute with Paris Jackson. In a January 9 filing obtained by People and Us Weekly, John Branca and John McClain told a judge that they’re owed around $94,000 in past legal bills. This comes after a judge threw out parts of Paris’s petition in November, granting a motion from the executors that invoked California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which is meant to prevent retaliatory legal action. The ruling found that some parts of Paris’s petition were based on protected court filings made by the executors, and noted that the estate was entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees. In this week’s filing, Branca and McClain are reportedly also asking for $21,000 to account for future legal expenses.

Previously, Paris filed an August motion asking a judge to order the executors to submit certain financial paperwork and prevent them from making full payments without court approval. She had also previously raised transparency concerns regarding past payments made by her late father’s estate. “These payments appear, at least in part, to consist of lavish gratuities bestowed upon already well-compensated counsel,” her motion argued. “As painful as it is to say in print, the present records suggest a group of closely-knit, highly-compensated lawyers is exploiting Executors’ lack of oversight to skim money from the Estate, in plain view.” (In layman’s terms, she’s alleging that smooth criminals are taking funds from the Jackson estate that they shouldn’t be.) The executors have denied Paris’s claims.

A representative for Paris said the court’s denial of her request to block the executors from making certain payments was a “minor procedural issue” that had no “bearing on the substance of the case,” and a spokesperson suggested in a statement to People that the executors’ filing just comes back to money. “For months, Paris Jackson has worked to address what appear to be troubling discrepancies and financial irregularities in the administration of her father’s estate,” the statement reads. “It’s no surprise the executors and their lawyers are using every tool at their disposal to take even more money from the Jackson family and use it to line their own pockets. Paris remains undeterred and will continue fighting for transparency, accountability and fairness for her family.”

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