Ye’s former assistant filed an amended lawsuit against the rapper last week that accuses him of drugging and sexually assaulting her, trafficking others, using job openings to recruit sex partners and tasking her with delivering him “sex honey.”
The suit alleges Ye, who legally changed his name from Kanye West, attacked Lauren Pisciotta in a hotel room, once drugged her at a recording studio, used foreign work visas and product photo shoots to recruit potential sex partners, “overshared” video of sexual encounters, and offered sex partners and others described as those he “trafficked” as gifts to friends and colleagues.
The civil complaint, which initially accused Ye of sexual harassment, was amended and filed Oct. 8 in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
In one case, the amended suit says, Ye texted Pisciotta for advice about his desire to have sex with the mother of a celebrity model he said he knew intimately.
Ye’s representative did not immediately respond to NBC News’ detailed questions about the allegations in both lawsuits. In June, a spokesperson not only denied allegations in the original version of the filing, but alleged the plaintiff had used sexuality in a failed attempt to “to coerce employment and other material benefits” from the rapper.
Ultimately, the spokesperson said, the plaintiff “engaged in blackmail and extortion” when sexual advances didn’t get the results she desired. The spokesperson said at the time Ye planned to file a countersuit against Pisciotta.
New allegations
The amended version adds two alleged incidents of sexual battery, including one at a hotel in San Francisco in 2021, when the plaintiff and defendant were in the city to work on an album that would become “Donda,” according to the filing.
It alleges Ye got on top of Pisciotta and attempted to have sex despite her vocal and consistent objections, which ultimately persuaded him to back off, the suit said.
The other alleged incident happened previous to the plaintiff’s full-time employment with Ye’s operations, which started in 2021. She was advising Ye on music business and was invited to a studio session in Santa Monica, California, that the suit said included the presence of Sean “Diddy” Combs. Pisciotta states in the lawsuit that she knew she had been drugged and had passed out at the session. Representatives for Combs did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Pisciotta alleged that Ye had sex with her while she was unconscious, saying she realized it years later after he boasted of it in text messages saying they “did kind of hook up a little one time,” according to the filing.
It alleges Ye “used his extreme wealth, influence, and power to pursue, among other things, sex, his insatiable sexual gratification, desires and fantasies and sexual exploitation of his victims, including but not limited to the attempted sexual exploitation and trafficking of Plaintiff, sexual assault, and the constant sexual harassment and demands of Plaintiff.”
Pisciotta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The San Francisco and Santa Monica police departments did not immediately respond to requests for information about the alleged incidents.
The suit said Ye allegedly campaigned for other sex partners by dangling the possibility of employment in front of them and arranging for them to travel with him. At his base of operations in Los Angeles, the suit said, it “was commonly known” by certain guests and employees that Ye ordered the construction of a makeshift bedroom at his offices, the suit alleged.
Additionally, it said, Ye used company bathrooms and dressing rooms for sex with social event attendees and women the suit claims he “paid and trafficked.”
The first version of Pisciotta’s lawsuit characterized the rapper as a sexual harassment menace in the workplace, alleging he used his businesses and the prospect of potential employment as coercive lures.
It alleged that Ye sent the plaintiff sexually graphic text messages, tasked Pisciotta with delivering him sexual enhancement honey, overshared sexual encounter stories, sent her photos of nude women, texted her video of a model performing oral sex on him, asked her for hugs after she declined numerous times, insinuated to business contacts he had sex with the plaintiff, repeated his unrequited sexual desire for her, and masturbated in front of her multiple times.
The original version as well as the amended filing allege wrongful termination, breach of contract, sexual harassment and hostile work environment, unlawful retaliation and emotional distress. The amended complaint also emphasized allegations of false imprisonment, sexual battery and infliction of emotional distress.
Among the remedies it seeks are compensation, likely to include millions of dollars that Pisciotta said in the filing Ye promised her for her continued dedication to his endeavors, punitive damages, attorney’s fees and any other relief approved by the court.
