The family of the late George Floyd is planning to file a $250 million lawsuit against Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, over his comments about Floyd’s death.
Floyd’s partner Roxie Washington retained the Witherspoon Law Group to file the lawsuit on behalf of Floyd’s daughter “for harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress” in response to Ye’s remarks on the podcast Drink Champs, in which the “Heartless” rapper claimed Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose despite former police officer Derek Chauvin‘s conviction for murdering him last year.
“In his recent appearance on the popular podcast Drink Champs, 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,” the Witherspoon Law Group wrote in a statement released to XXL.
LAWYER FOR GEORGE FLOYD FAMILY ASSEMBLES TEAM TO MULL LAWSUIT AGAINST YE
Floyd, whose death sparked national backlash and protests against police brutality in the summer of 2020, was also the subject of conservative pundit Candace Owens‘s recent documentary that also argued Floyd’s death was caused by fentanyl instead of the knee placed on his neck.
“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out,” Ye told the pair of hosts. “If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that … It’s in the documentary.”
The group that is planning to sue claims Ye “stated malicious falsehoods about George Floyd to profit from Mr. Floyd’s horrendous death and his family’s trauma.”
Additionally, the family’s attorneys issued a cease and desist letter regarding Ye’s comments about Floyd, according to TMZ.
The full podcast episode has since been removed from YouTube and Revolt TV despite lingering clips that have been posted since the Saturday interview.
Attorney Lee Merritt previously signaled Floyd’s family was prepared to sue over the statement on Monday, saying, “While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death.”
One of the podcast hosts, N.O.R.E., apologized on Monday following internet backlash for allowing Ye to speak on his show and spread “false and hurtful information.”
“Drink Champs prides itself on its ability to allow a free flow of ideas within the hip-hop community. That being said, unfortunately, the recent interview with Kanye West contained false and hurtful information regarding the circumstances surrounding the murder of George Floyd,” a spokesperson said. “Integrity is very important and we don’t want to promote false narratives on our platform. Our goal is to celebrate the culture. Therefore, we had no choice but to remove the episode from distribution. We apologize to the family of Mr. Floyd and anyone else hurt by this episode.”
Last year, Chauvin was convicted of third-degree murder, second-degree manslaughter, and second-degree unintentional murder for the death of Floyd. He is facing 22 1/2 years in prison. Three other police officers at the scene were convicted in February of federal civil rights offenses related to Floyd’s death.
Ye’s podcast statements coincide with news about his plans to acquire the conservative social media platform Parler, a website that is dubbed as an alternative to other sites like Twitter and Instagram, which suspended Ye last week for posting antisemitic comments.
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He explained to NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Monday about his decision to purchase the social media platform.
“Why would I remain in a place where I’m just tolerated?” he asked Cuomo, referring to the mainstream platforms. “Why not go to a place where I’m celebrated? That’s actually something Kid Rock just gave me a text about.”
