Hasan Piker Sues CNN's Scott Jennings for $72.5M Over Lynching Clip
The streamer says Jennings used a manipulated video to claim he wants lynchings brought back. The complaint was filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington.
Streamer Hasan Piker has sued CNN commentator Scott Jennings for defamation, seeking $72.5 million. The 38-page complaint was filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, DC.
Piker accuses Jennings of using a false and manipulated video to claim that Piker wants to bring back the lynching of Black Americans.
What the complaint alleges
According to the complaint, Jennings said on his August 11 podcast that Piker had a plan of "returning our country to lynchings". He then told his social media followers that Piker says the US should resume lynchings against Black people.
Piker says the clips came from a segment two years old, in which he was mocking racism rather than advocating for it. Piker says Jennings must have known this. It describes the accusation as one that invoked a shameful chapter of American history and says Jennings falsely told Black Americans that Piker wanted them lynched for voting.
The filing argues that Jennings was free to criticize Piker's political positions, to call his commentary offensive, or to play his actual words and comment on them. "Mr. Jennings was not free to do what he did: knowingly attribute to Mr. Piker statements that Mr. Piker never made," it says.
The damages sought
The three-count suit asks for compensatory damages of not less than $27.5 million and punitive damages of $45 million, plus fees and interest. Piker says he suffered reputational, professional, economic and emotional injuries.
His lawyers from Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch say Jennings, a former aide to Mitch McConnell, has financial, professional and political incentives to publish sensational accusations. In late August, Piker tried to get Jennings to admit the misquote and retract it. The attempt was unsuccessful.
Source: Deadline