A man who says he was assigned by Ye to gather intelligence against Kim Kardashian and another of the rapper’s former wives can proceed anonymously in his lawsuit against the rapper, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Identified in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit only as John Doe, the plaintiff says the singer appointed him as his “director of intelligence” and assigned him to look into the family of Kardashian and any alleged links Ye believed that she and another of his former wives, Bianca Censori, had with crime, including alleged sex trafficking.
Doe contended he needed to keep his real name out of his court papers because he feared being further targeted by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, and his fans. On Wednesday, Judge Holly Fujie ruled in his favor, denying the rapper’s motion to compel the plaintiff to proceed in his future court papers with his actual identification.
“Plaintiff is not concealing his identity from defendants, he is merely seeking to withhold it from the public,” the judge wrote. “As such, defendants’ ability to conduct discovery and depositions will not be impaired.”
The suit also names as a defendant Ye’s company, Yeezy LLC. In a sworn declaration previously filed with Fujie, Doe said, “My position placed me within the inner circle of defendants Ye and Yeezy LLC, where I witnessed harassment and retaliation against other employees, which drove many of them to leave out of fear.”
The plaintiff further said that when he reported alleged abuse at Donda Academy, the former private school founded by Ye, he was retaliated against by Ye and his associates, and also received death threats. Ye told the plaintiff, “I am dead to him,” according to Doe.
Yeezy’s operations manager warned Doe that he and his family would be in danger if he stayed, according to the plaintiff.
Doe said he is a disabled veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and that he fears taking on more emotional distress will jeopardize his health and safety.
In their court papers, the 48-year-old Ye’s attorneys argued that allowing Doe to proceed anonymously deprived them of the ability to properly vet his credibility, to probe his prior employment or litigation history, to assess bias, motivations or damages claims, to properly conduct discovery and depositions and to defend against harm to Ye’s reputation.
According to Doe’s suit filed last Oct. 10, he also was allegedly ordered to conduct investigations into Ye’s then-wife, Censori, and to secretly follow Censori during her solo trips to Australia.