Hasan Piker is suing conservative pundit Scott Jennings for indicating the controversial live-streamer advocates the lynching of Black people
His civil defamation suit filed Tuesday in a Washington D.C. district court is asking for $72.5M. It alleges that Jennings said on an Aug.11 podcast that Piker was “out there calling for Black voters to be lynched” and that “the USA should resume lynchings against Black people.”
Piker alleges that Jennings’ characterization of his comments and beliefs is entirely wrong.
“Mr. Jennings did not merely mischaracterize something Mr. Piker said. He took a false, fabricated, and manipulated video of Mr. Piker, added a made-up quotation that Mr. Piker never uttered, and then made accusations that went beyond even what the manipulated footage purported to show,” Piker’s lawyers contend.
The plaintiff claims that the footage Jennings cited on his podcast was lifted out of context from a Twitch livestream. According to the lawsuit, the sample Jennings cites features Piker mocking a pundit whose argument implied the country should return to “a better time” when lynchings were common.
“Mr. Piker was plainly ridiculing the commentator’s position,” the lawsuit alleges. “He was not endorsing it.”
Piker is asking for $27.5 million in compensatory damages and $45 million for punitive damages.
Jennings, who frequently appears on CNN’s “NewsNight with Abby Phillip,” hasn’t returned a request for comment on Piker’s filing.
The 49-year-old Kentucky conservative served as an assistant to former President George W. Bush. There’s been speculation that he could be tapped to fill the White House Press Secretary position left vacant earlier this month when Katie Zacharia was abruptly dismissed after five days on the job.
Piker is frequently attacked by right-wing media outlets for his sometimes incendiary takes on world events. The Anti-Defamation League accuses him of engaging in “rhetoric that sanitizes and justifies violence and terrorism against the State of Israel and of using derogatory rhetoric towards Jews.”
Piker argues that his commentary is specific to the actions of the Israeli government. More than 3 million people follow him on Twitch.
Original article
Comments