The self-proclaimed “civil rights activist” DeRay McKesson is suing Fox News personality Jeanine Pirro, claiming that she defamed him in a segment where she discussed a lawsuit brought against the Black Lives Matter movement, of which McKesson is a leader.
According to the Baltimore Sun,
Mckesson alleges that Pirro made “false and defamatory statements” claiming he directed other protesters to commit violence that resulted in a police officer getting stuck in the face with a rock, according to a lawsuit filed in New York on Tuesday.
“Pirro’s statements are untrue and further a narrative that I, and other activists, engage in violent protest,” Mckesson said in message to The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday.
The lawsuit is new, but the segment it’s in response to actually aired back in September on Fox and Friends. She claimed that McKesson had incited violence in a 2016 protest following the police-shooting of Alton Sterling.
.@JudgeJeanine, I was found not guilty & I didn't direct any violence. In fact, I was protesting the violence of the police. Stop lying. pic.twitter.com/c1D4SM0VlB
— deray (@deray) September 29, 2017
The lawsuit continues, stating that “the statements made by Pirro are false, and were either known to be false by Defendant Pirro or were made with reckless disregard for whether they were true…Given the exposure made to an audience of 1.7 million people on the nature of DeRay’s work, the damage to his reputation is extremely significant.”
McKesson maintains that he had first sought a retraction from Fox News, but was refused one.
Pirro responded to McKesson’s request for a retraction back in September, telling The Washington Post, “Based on 32 years in law enforcement, you can only be found not guilty after a trial. McKesson was not tried. I was quoting paragraph 17 and 19 from court documents.”
The court documents don’t exactly appear to show what Pirro thinks, however. The court documents she’s referencing stem from a lawsuit in which an officer injured during the Alton Sterling protests sued the Black Lives Matter movement (and Deray McKesson). A federal judge in Louisiana ruled that McKesson couldn’t he held liable for the officer’s injuries and that there was no evidence that he gave specific instructions to the unidentified protester who threw a rock at the officer.
There’s no question that Black Lives Matter is a movement that has no problem resorting to violence, but in this one particular case, there’s no evidence that McKesson was involved. It’s still a fact that BLM members assaulted police officers with rocks at that protest, seriously wounding some. It’s interesting that the lawsuit here is being filed to protect McKesson’s brand image, not his movement’s, isn’t it?
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