Britney Spears scored a huge win in her conservator case Wednesday, when a judge approved her choice of attorney to hire to defend her. That choice: former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart.
Rosengart immediately called on Britney’s father James Spears to resign as her conservator.
The video above showed the scene outside of Wednesday’s hearing in Los Angeles, including a surprise appearance from Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Throughout her 13-year conservatorship, Britney has had Samuel Ingham III as a court-appointed attorney to represent her interests. He resigned after a dramatic hearing three weeks ago.
Britney took part in the hearing by phone.
“My dad needs to be removed today,” she said. However, she would not want the conservatorship to end if she would be required to go through any more “stupid” evaluations. Britney said she did not want another opportunity for “people to question my intelligence for the millionth time.”
She also said she would like to see James charged with abusing his position.
Britney said as a part of the conservatorship, she was denied things like coffee, her driver’s license and her “hair vitamins”.
“If this is not abuse, I don’t know what is,” Britney said.
According to Britney, she thought her father was trying to kill her in the early years of the conservatorship due to being overworked and constantly examined. She began to sob as she talked about taking comfort in a therapy dog when she felt abandoned by her family.
While this was going on, Britney supporters gathered near the downtown Los Angels courthouse. Supporters included Rep. Gaetz, who called James a “d**k” and said James should not make any more decisions regarding his daughter.
“She is nearly 40 years old. She should make her own decisions,” Gaetz said. “But you know what? This case should open our eyes to the broader abuse that occurs in this system to the millions of Americans impacted.”
Konstantine Anthony, a councilmember for the City of Burbank, responded to Gaetz’s appearance.
“I’d say there’s a lot of conservatorship abuse in the state of Florida,” Councilmember Anthony said. “If he wants to take care of that stuff over there, we’ll take care of California. We’re making changes.”
