An attorney for Minaj's 38-year-old brother, Jelani Maraj, told jurors at Nassau County Court in New York on Thursday that the rape charges against his client were all part of an elaborate plot to extort money from Nicki.
Maraj is accused of raping his 11-year-old stepdaughter multiple times in 2015 soon after he married her mother Jacqueline Robinson.
During the opening arguments on Thursday, Maraj's attorney David Schwartz told jurors that Robinson hatched a plan to marry the accused so she could try and get money out of his famous sister.
He added that Robinson forced the alleged victim and her younger brother to lie to authorities about the rape allegations as part of her extortion plan.
Schwartz said Robinson allegedly told Minaj: 'I can make the charges go away for $25million.'
It is not clear when Minaj will take to the stand but she will be the defense's star witness.
Prosecutors, however, gave harrowing details of the alleged sexual abuse during their opening arguments, saying Maraj raped the sixth-grader as often as four times a week for eight months.
Assistant District Attorney Emma Slane told jurors that the girl's brother, who was then eight-year-old, witnessed some of the abuse.
The boy had told child services that his step-father had beaten him after he walked into a bedroom and saw him raping the girl, according to the prosecutor.
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