Marilyn Manson accuser Ashley Smithline says her claims of sexual abuse are 'false'

Ashley Morgan Smithline, a model who filed a sexual abuse lawsuit against rocker Marilyn Manson, says her allegations were "false." This comes one month after a judge dismissed her suit.

"I succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault against [Manson] that were not true," Smithline said in a sworn statement filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Thursday, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE.

EW reached out to a rep for Wood for comment. The actress' team told PEOPLE in a statement, "Evan never pressured or manipulated Ashley. It was Ashley who first contacted Evan about the abuse she had suffered. It's unfortunate that the harassment and threats Ashley received after filing her federal lawsuit appear to have pressured her to change her testimony."

Wood said Manson, her ex-boyfriend, "horrifically abused" her for years in a statement she released on social media in February 2021. She later featured in the HBO documentary Phoenix Rising, in which the Westworld star said the musician "essentially raped" her during filming of the "Heart-Shaped Glasses" music video.

Other women have come forward with similar accounts of their time with Manson. He has denied all claims of abuse made by his former partners.

Smithline's initial lawsuit stated she "endured threats to her life" while with Manson, who had manipulated her "physically and emotionally." The model also spoke about the alleged abuse in a PEOPLE cover story, in which she said she "thought [Manson] was going to kill" her. PEOPLE says editors corroborated Smithline's account with multiple sources at the time.

It's important to note that Smithline's suit wasn't dismissed because of insufficient evidence. It was dismissed without prejudice with an option to re-file because she failed to choose whether to represent herself in the case or hire a new lawyer after parting ways with her attorney, Jay Ellwanger.

Smithline's sworn statement now says she was "repeatedly gaslit" by individuals, including Wood; Ashley Waters, Manson's former assistant who sued him for sexual assault and battery in 2021; Illma Gore, Wood's girlfriend; and Esmé Bianco, the Game of Thrones actress who also sued Manson for sexual assault in 2021.

The model admitted to "a brief, consensual sexual relationship" with Manson starting in 2010. After she says she was asked to take part in a group meeting with women who have had a "relationship or experiences" with Manson, Smithline states Wood "asked me whether I had been, among other things, whipped, chained, tied up, branded/cut, assaulted while sleeping, beaten, or raped."

"She said all of these things happened to Ms. Wood and others, and that when Ms. Wood was with [Manson] every moment was a moment of survival," Smithline wrote. "When I said, no this did not happen to me and this was not my experience, I recall being told by Ms. Wood that just because I could not remember did not necessarily mean that it did not happen."

Smithline said, over the course of additional conversations, that she started questioning whether she had been abused by Manson. "Eventually, I started to believe that what I was repeatedly told happened to Ms. Wood and Ms. Bianco happened to me," she wrote in the filing.

Smithline posted a statement to Instagram in February 2021 that named Manson as her abuser. She now says that statement, as well as interviews she then gave to PEOPLE, "contained untrue statements" about Manson, "including that there was violence and non-consensual sexual activity." In addition, she recanted other claims that Manson branded her and cut into her body.

She claimed to have been encouraged to speak out publicly against Manson and that she never saw the contents of her civil complaint against the rocker. Smithline mentions felling "pressured" by her lawyer, Ellwanger, to go on a press tour to talk about her experience. Ellwanger told PEOPLE that he is "constrained by ethical obligations regarding client confidentiality," but calls Smithline's allegations about him "categorically and verifiably false."

Manson sued Wood and Gore in 2022 for concocting a "conspiracy" to cast him as "a rapist and abuser — which is similar to what Smithline is now alleging.

"I can't, obviously, speak about any of the specific allegations of the lawsuit, but I am not scared," Wood said as a response to Manson's suit. "I am sad, because this is how it works, this is what pretty much every survivor that tries to expose someone in a position of power goes through, and this is part of the retaliation that keeps survivors quiet. This is why people don't want to come forward, because this is — this was expected."

Most recently, an unidentified woman, referred to as Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit against Manson this past January for grooming and sexually assaulting her multiple times, beginning when she was 16 and continuing into adulthood. An attorney for Manson denied those allegations and told EW his client "does not know this individual and has no recollection of ever having met her 28 years ago."

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• Marilyn Manson sued for sexual assault of a minor
• Evan Rachel Wood responds to Marilyn Manson lawsuit: 'I have the truth on my side'
• Marilyn Manson sues Evan Rachel Wood, alleging 'conspiracy' to cast him as a rapist and abuser