Court upholds reporter’s right to quiz chauffeur about Adelson’s foul mouth

If you’ve ever heard Sheldon Adelson curse like a sailor, Kate O’Keefe wants to hear from you.

Last week, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that said Wall Street Journal scribe O’Keefe was allowed to question Kwame Luangisa, who acted as chauffeur to the Las Vegas Sands chairman between 2007 and 2011.

In 2013, Adelson sued O’Keefe for libel after she referred to the casino operator as a “scrappy, foul-mouthed billionaire” in an article detailing Adelson’s legal battle with Steve Jacobs, the former CEO of Sands China, who filed a wrongful termination suit after being unceremoniously kicked to the curb in 2010.

Adelson suspected that some of the material in O’Keefe’s article had been provided by Jacobs, leading him to ask a court to force O’Keefe to hand over her phone and email records. The New York State Supreme Court eventually ruled that Adelson wasn’t entitled to rummage through O’Keefe’s sock drawers.