Comments from Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, about the death of George Floyd could trigger a lawsuit.
During a recent interview, Ye recounted watching conservative pundit Candace Owens‘s recent documentary about Floyd and argued that Floyd’s death was caused by fentanyl instead of the knee placed on his neck. Following those comments, a lawyer for Floyd’s family quickly announced he has assembled a team to explore legal options against the billionaire hip-hop star.
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“While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death. Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl, not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight,” attorney Lee Merritt tweeted.
While one cannot defame the dead, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is considering suit for Kanye’s false statements about the manner of his death.
Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s fight.
— Lee Merritt (@MerrittForTexas) October 16, 2022
Owens recently filmed a documentary, The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM, in which she argued that Floyd’s death was caused by an overdose rather than asphyxiation from officer Derek Chauvin’s knee being on his neck for over eight minutes.
Ye’s comments were made on the podcast Drink Champs and sparked backlash on social media.
“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out. One of the things that his two roommates said was, ‘They want a tall guy like me,’ and the day that he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes,” Ye said. “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
Medical experts claimed that Floyd had trace amounts of fentanyl in his bloodstream at the time of his death.
Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, relayed Ye’s remarks to Merritt and initially asked about filing a defamation suit, Merritt told CNN. Merritt told CNN defamation likely isn’t possible due to Floyd being deceased. However, he has established a team to consider options such as intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“I have put together a working team to investigate [Ye’s] statements and to investigate the source of those statements,” Merritt said, according to CNN.
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. Other police officers at the scene are also facing charges pertaining to Floyd’s death.
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Ye made waves Monday following the announcement that he reached an agreement in principle to acquire the social media platform Parler. Owens’s husband, George Farmer, is the CEO of Parler.
The rapper was recently locked out of Twitter for antisemitic comments in which he said he would go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”
