Jamie Spears Is Trying to Extort Britney: Lawyer

Britney Spears and her new attorney say her father is trying to get about $2 million in payments before stepping down from the conservatorship that controls her life and money, a move they liken to extortion in a court filing Tuesday. The document filed by lawyer Mathew Rosengart says the upcoming scheduled accounting of the conservatorship, which Jamie Spears says he wants completed before he steps down, will mean significant payments for him, the AP reports. “Britney Spears will not be extorted,” the filing says. “Mr. Spears’s blatant attempt to barter suspension and removal in exchange for approximately $2 million in payments, on top of the millions already reaped from Ms. Spears’s estate by Mr. Spears and his associates, is a non-starter.”

A representative for Jamie Spears did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The filing is a supplement to Rosengart's July petition on Britney Spears' behalf for the removal and suspension of Jamie Spears. In his response, Jamie Spears revealed that he had already been planning to step down from his daughter's conservatorship, which he has controlled at least in part since it was established in 2008. But Jamie Spears offered no timetable for his departure, saying it would come only after several lingering issues, including the next accounting, are resolved. Britney Spears' lawyer tells People that Jamie Spears "should resign now, today, before he is suspended. It would be the correct and decent thing to do." He says he will ask the court to suspend Jamie Spears at the Sept. 29 hearing to address the July petition.

(More Britney Spears stories.)