Jury clears rapper Cardi B of assaulting security guard

The plaintiff in the case, former security officer Emani Ellis, claimed in the $US24 million ($A37 million) lawsuit that Cardi B physically attacked her, spit on her and shouted racial slurs at her. Both women are Black.

Cardi B testified that she never touched the plaintiff but acknowledged cursing at the security guard when Ellis tried to take mobile phone video of the singer on her way to an obstetrician visit when she was pregnant but had yet to publicly announce the pregnancy.

At the time, Cardi B was expecting the first of her three children fathered by rapper Offset.

Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Cardi B repeated her assertions of innocence, saying, "I did not touch that woman, I did not lay my hands on that girl." She vowed to file a countersuit if she were ever named again as a defendant in a "frivolous lawsuit".