(JTA) — Donald Sterling, the disgraced former owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, is suing the celebrity gossip site TMZ and ex-girlfriend V. Stiviano.
Sterling, who owned the NBA club for more than three decades before being banned by the league last year, filed suit against the two in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, the Washington Post reported.
Sterling’s suit alleges that Stiviano “illicitly” recorded a phone conversation without his knowledge. In the recording, made public in April 2014, Sterling told Stiviano not to socialize with African-American men. Public outrage over his statements led to the lifetime ban from the National Basketball Association, many of whose players are African-American.
The suit contends that the recording was edited deliberately to distort his meaning and damaged him on a “scale of unparalleled and unprecedented magnitude.” In the recording, and in subsequent comments and interviews, Sterling, who is Jewish, made reference to a number of Jewish issues as well, including the Holocaust and Jewish free loan organizations.
Sterling also is suing his wife, Rochelle, and numerous other individuals.
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