Kevin Hart has been given the green light to proceed forward with his defamation and invasion of privacy lawsuit against Tasha K for her salacious 2023 tell-all interview with his former assistant.
However, his claims that he was at the center of an extortion plot were thrown out.
Source: Prince Williams/WireImage
According to a motion obtained by Court House News Service, during a hearing in Los Angeles on April 25 California Superior Court Judge Holly Fujie denied a portion of the anti-SLAPP motion filed by Tasha K (Latasha Transrina Kebe) and her production company.
Anti-SLAPP laws offer defendants a means to promptly dismiss frivolous lawsuits, commonly referred to as SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation), that are filed against them for exercising their rights to free speech.
Inside his lawsuit filed in December, Hart, 44, claimed Tasha K and his former assistant Miesha Shakes made “false and defamatory statements” about “legal disputes in which he had been involved.” One of the claims brought up during the discussion was charges related to a sex tape the comedian allegedly recorded in Las Vegas in 2017.
“Such statements were published despite the fact that the prospect of there being criminal charges against Hart was provably false, which could have been confirmed with a basic public records search, and the fact that no evidence existed to corroborate such a claim,” Hart penned in his lawsuit against Shakes and the Unwine With Tasha K host.
Courthouse News reports that the judge ruled that Kevin Hart’s defamation claim had enough merit to proceed, rejecting Tasha K’s motion to dismiss the claim under anti-SLAPP laws designed to protect free speech. The judge affirmed that the use of the word “charges” by Shakes and Tasha K during their YouTube sitdown could lead people to believe Hart faced criminal prosecution, which he did not.
Even if “charges” referred to civil actions, it would still be false since a civil lawsuit against Hart had been dismissed in June 2023.
Matthew Cate, an attorney representing Tasha K, may appeal the decision.
The motion also noted that Judge Fujie struck down Hart’s extortion claims against the vlogger. In the suit, he alleged a member from Tasha K’s team threatened to drop her interview with Shakes for “a ransom of $250,000.” The individual also allegedly warned Hart that the interview would be “damaging to [his] reputation.”
Judge Fuije tossed out the claim against the infamous YouTube star, stating that “it should be dismissed because California law does not support such a cause of action.”
On X, formerly Twitter, Tasha K celebrated the judge’s decision.
“So glad that the Judge threw out #KevinHarts bogus extortion claims, That’s his forever go to line these days it seems like,” she penned on April 24, noting how her law team was working hard to fight other “so-called claims” made by the comedian.
So glad that the Judge threw out #KevinHarts bogus extortion claims, That’s his forever go to line these days it seems like. My lawyers made progress getting half of these so called claims thrown out today. We have two more claims we are actively fighting regarding interference…
— Tasha K | UNWINEWITHTASHAK (@unwinewithtasha) April 24, 2024
In January, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge rejected Hart’s request for a temporary restraining order against Tasha K, Court House News Service noted in a separate article. She would have been required to take down her tell-all interview with Shakes if it was granted.
Shakes, who reportedly worked as Hart’s assistant from 2017 to 2020, also accused the Night School actor of purportedly cheating on his wife, Eniko Hart, with a flight attendant and multiple other women during her tell-all interview. Additionally, she claimed that the comedian had a “gambling problem” and orchestrated an “extortion plot” against his former best friend, JT Jackson.
What do you think about Tasha K and Kevin Hart’s heated defamation and invasion of privacy lawsuit?