Kevin Hart's former assistant is trying to pull the woman at the centre of his 2017 sex-tape scandal back into court, asking a Los Angeles judge to allow accuser Montia Sabbag to testify in an ongoing non-disclosure agreement lawsuit involving the comedian, according to newly reported filings.

Hart is suing ex-staffer Miesha Shakes over claims she broke an NDA and defamed him during an interview about his private life. Shakes worked for Hart's company between August 2017 and October 2020, the same period that covered the Las Vegas trip where the Kevin Hart recording was made and the subsequent criminal investigation.

Shakes, who is reported to be representing herself, has named Sabbag as a witness she wants to question, TMZ reported, citing court filings. She has also told the court that she intends to testify and that she plans to call Hart to give evidence.

The court has not yet ruled on whether Sabbag will be required to appear, and there have been no public reports of responses from Hart or Sabbag to the request.

Shakes plans to question Sabbag about the Las Vegas recording and the inquiry that followed. In her defence, she argues that Hart's reputation was already affected by the sex-tape scandal long before she spoke publicly, which she says weakens his claim that her comments caused him fresh reputational damage.

Mental Health Issues and the NDA Dispute

In a sworn declaration filed in the case, Shakes said she was dealing with 'significant mental health issues' and facing financial distress, having been unemployed, when she signed the NDA, USA Herald reported. The court has made no finding on that claim and her account remains untested.

She also contends the agreement is void because Hart allegedly failed to meet his own obligations under it, including providing three years of health insurance cover she says she was promised.

Hart has said in a declaration that he paid all sums due and that Shakes accepted them, according to a Los Angeles court order. The judge noted that the opposing accounts created a disputed issue of fact that would need to be resolved later in the case.

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What Kevin Hart's NDA Lawsuit Alleges

Hart and his company, K Hart Enterprises, brought the lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court over an interview Shakes gave to blogger Tasha K, whose real name is Latasha Kebe.

Kebe and her company, Kebe Studios, were also named as defendants. Reports say the suit was filed in December 2023 and that Shakes's employment with Hart's company ran from August 2017 until October 2020.

Hart and K. Hart Enterprises' amended complaint alleged five causes of action: civil extortion, breach of contract, intentional interference with contractual relations, invasion of privacy and defamation. The breach-of-contract claim was brought against Shakes alone.

Under the agreement, Shakes undertook not to disclose private and confidential information about Hart, his family and his associates to journalists, tabloids, broadcasters, websites or social media. Hart alleges that she breached that promise in the interview, which discussed the 2017 Kevin Hart recording and the waves of litigation that followed it.

In a 14 November 2024 ruling on Shakes's anti-SLAPP motion, Judge Holly Fujie found that Hart's breach-of-contract, invasion-of-privacy and defamation claims had 'minimal merit' at that stage, allowing them to survive the challenge. The ruling did not establish that the underlying allegations were true.

Montia Sabbag's Previous Kevin Hart Recording Cases

Sabbag sued Hart for 60 million dollars in 2019, alleging she was secretly filmed having sex with him in a Las Vegas hotel in 2017 without her consent. Hart denied any wrongdoing.

Her federal lawsuit was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds in 2020, according to earlier reports.

A later California state case was dismissed without prejudice in June 2023 after neither Sabbag nor her lawyer attended a court conference, and a judge declined to reinstate it in February 2024. None of those rulings determined whether her allegations were accurate; they concerned procedural issues.

No trial date has yet been reported in the dispute between Hart and Shakes, and it is not clear whether Sabbag will ultimately be ordered to give evidence.

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