Despite earlier reports that Taylor Swift threatened Kanye West with criminal prosecution over their recorded phone call that Kim Kardashian leaked on her Snapchat, Kanye likely will not face any charges. TMZ reportedly obtained the entire phone call recording, and discovered something important: the call wasn't private. Kanye's phone was on speaker mode, and Rick Rubin reportedly chimed in several times during the conversation. Kanye's camera crew could also reportedly be heard talking in the background.
This might seem like an unimportant detail, but it's actually pivotal to the lawsuit threats that Swift made against Kanye. She claimed that the recording was made without her consent, and under California law, she would have to be privy to the recording in order for it to be lawful. However, as TMZ points out, this only applies to "confidential communication."
A private phone call between two people would count for this, but if Swift knew she was being overheard by Rick Rubin—which she surely did if he chimed into the conversation—then the entire communication would no longer be considered confidential. As such, the law would not apply and the recording would be completely lawful. In this case, Swift would have no legal standing to claim the phone call was confidential.
Although she threatened the legal action back in February, it's not clear that Swift planned to follow through with this at all. She's taken a beating on social media ever since the phone call leaked, subject to internet ridicule under the #KimExposedTaylorParty hashtag. A lawsuit might only further publicize an event that she may be keen to move on from. Nonetheless, if she did decide to pursue legal action, it seems that she might not have any recourse there either.
The call revealed that, despite her initial statements, Swift was aware of at least some of the lyrics directed at her on Kanye West's "Famous." She maintains that she didn't know he was going to refer to her as "that bitch," but the video does seem to reveal that she knew more about the song than she originally let on.
