The time Kanye West got sued for alleged ties to terrorist group Al-Qaeda
Kanye West has been at the centre of many a scandal during his time. Lots of these controversies have been entirely of his own making, but others are a bit less clear-cut. In 2016, for instance, reports emerged that he and his then-partner, Kim Kardashian, were being sued because of their alleged links to Al-Qaeda.
You couldn’t make this stuff up, unless that’s precisely what happened? It is probably worthwhile to be aware of the wider context here, which is that the person who filed this suit, Jonathan Lee Riches, has something of a reputation. This was far from the only lawsuit he’d ever taken out on a celebrity.
According to the news aggregation website Newser, which reported on the lawsuit in June 2012, other members of the Kardashian family were also named by Riches. In his suit, he claimed, “On June 17th, 2012, I was in West Virginia, deep in the hills, and I stumbled upon the defendants who were all at an Al-Qaeda secret training camp.”
He said that he saw them all pledging allegiance to the terrorist organisation, while burning a US flag and defacing a photograph of the then-president, Barack Obama. They allegedly sprayed a machine gun into the air, too, while a concert was also performed for the watching Al-Qaeda members. It was quite the story.
Riches has reportedly been convicted of fraud in the past, and he has taken out a huge number of lawsuits against many different celebrities. By 2012, around the time that this case involving Ye and Kim was being reported on, Riches was known to have taken out more than 2,600 lawsuits. It’s perhaps worth noting that when considering his claims about what he saw in West Virginia.
In addition to Kanye and Kim, Riches’ litigious instinct has targeted some big names. He’s reportedly tried to sue George W Bush, Martha Stewart, Steve Jobs and Britney Spears, among many, many others. He’s also apparently gone after entire organisations, some of which aren’t even operational anymore. Hitler’s Nazi Party is one such example.
In his case against former President Bush, several other figures were also listed. These included Plato, Nostradamus, Che Guevara and Jimmy Hoffa. “Various Buddhist monks” also supposedly received a mention, as did all survivors of the Holocaust. There were buildings, too, including the Lincoln Memorial and the Eiffel Tower. It got more conceptual still, as the Garden of Eden, the Roman Empire, the Holy Grail, Nordic gods and the dwarf planet Pluto were all listed as part of his suit.
Riches even filed for an injunction against Guinness World Records, apparently to prevent them from listing him as “the most litigious individual in history.” That, according to a spokesperson from the organisation, was ridiculous. “‘Most litigious man’ is not something Guinness World Records has ever monitored as a record category,” this spokesperson said.
This case against Guinness World Records, as with the vast, vast majority of Riches’ other filings, was dismissed. It’s worth bearing that in mind while considering his claims against Ye and Kim.