Kanye’s Lies About George Floyd Have ‘Retraumatized’ His Daughter, Lawyer Says Amid $250 Million Lawsuit
Roxie Washington (R) and Gianna Floyd, daughter of George Floyd, attend the funeral service in the chapel at the Fountain of Praise church on June 9, 2020, in Houston, Texas. | Source: Getty Images / Getty
The mother of George Floyd‘s daughter is suing Kanye West over the lies he spread on a podcast episode that was published just days ago. The $250 million lawsuit is being filed by Roxie Washington on behalf of her 8-year-old daughter with Floyd “for harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress,” the press release announcing the lawsuit said in part.
Having recently become a fountain of antisemitism, Kanye on Sunday appeared on the controversial “Drink Champs” show that invites celebrities to be interviewed while hosts Nore and DJ EFN ply them with liquor and marijuana in an effort to get them to loosen up and say provocative things. While Kanye spewed his apparently obligatory anti-Jewish rhetoric, he also decided to inject a widely debunked right-wing conspiracy that Floyd died from fentanyl use and not from convicted murderer Derek Chauvin using his knee to apply deadly pressure to Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.
Chauvin’s knee “wasn’t even on his neck like that,” Kanye said to Nore about Floyd without the host interrupting or doing any fact-checking.
That clear and obvious lie has “retraumatized” Floyd’s young daughter, one of the lawyers representing Washington said in the press release.
“Kanye West knowingly made blatantly false statements about George Floyd’s death to promote his brands, and increase marketing value and revenue for himself, his business partners, and associates. During the podcast interview, Kanye West stated malicious falsehoods about George Floyd to profit from Mr. Floyd’s horrendous death and his family’s trauma,” the press release said before attorney Nuru Witherspoon added later: “The interests of the child are priority. George Floyd’s daughter is being retraumatized by Kanye West’s comments and he’s creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her.”
Roxie Washington, the mother of George Floyd’s daughter Gianna Floyd, attends a press conference on June 2, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. | Source: Stephen Maturen / Getty
While Kanye’s outrageousness is usually a ploy for more attention, it seems this time his plan backfired as he may not have considered the collateral damage from his hate-filled lies.
Chances are that Washington will be successful with her lawsuit, what with last week’s judgment that found conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay nearly $1 billion for the lies he told surrounding the Newtown school massacre.
That seemed to be what another of Washington’s lawyers hinted at in the press release when issued a veiled threat to Kanye.
“Free Speech Rights do not include harassment, lies, misrepresentation, and the misappropriation of George Floyd’s legacy. Some words have consequences and Mr. West will be made to understand that,” attorney Kay Harper Williams said.
In the interim, Kanye has shown no signs of stopping the antisemitism and has doubled and tripled down since the fateful “Drink Champs” episode.
That truth coupled with this new lawsuit may spur others to launch a similar lawsuit against the same man who just announced Monday he intended to buy far-right social media network Parler after the more popular Twitter and Instagram silenced Kanye on those platforms.
The episode in question was taken down and lawyers ordered a cease and desist because various video clips remain on social media. As a result, it as unclear if “Drink Champs” could be the next recipient of a sizable lawsuit.
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