James Woods will finally find out the identity of the person who accused him of abusing cocaine on Twitter.
On Tuesday, a court ordered that the attorney for the anonymous — and reportedly now deceased accuser — be identified, Woods’ attorney, Michael Weinsten, told TheWrap in a statement.
“This is a significant step forward in our ability to recover the millions in damages caused by John Doe’s cowardly Tweet,” Weinsten said. “It also sends a message to others who believe they can hide behind the anonymity of online social media to falsely accuse public figures of heinous behavior without recourse to themselves.”
Per Tuesday’s ruling, the accuser’s attorney, Kenneth White, must reveal his client’s name “and other identifying information” by sworn declaration within 10 days.
Woods filed suit against the Twitter user, who bore the handle Abe List, in July 2015, claiming that List, a regular Twitter tormentor of the actor, went over the line with a tweet characterizing Woods as a “cocaine addict.”
“Woods is not now, nor has he ever been, a cocaine addict, and [Abe List] has no reason to believe otherwise,” the suit reads.
Woods’ suit went on to claim that List’s “malicious behavior, through the worldwide use of the internet, has now jeopardized Woods’ good name and reputation on an international scale.”
The ruling comes months after news of List’s reported death — news greeted with a gloating tweet by the “Once Upon a Time in America” actor.
In October, Woods tweeted that List had dropped a legal motion against the actor, writing, “The slime who libeled me just dropped his appeal contesting my victorious SLAPP motion.”
Informed that List had died, Woods was undeterred in his social-media victory lap, writing, “Hopefully screaming my name in agony.” He subsequently deleted the tweet, but not before it was preserved by another user.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.