The family of the late George Floyd has filed a $250 million lawsuit against Kanye West.
Attorneys for the mother of Floyd's daughter sent a cease-and-desist letter to Ye for his Drunk Champs podcast remarks, where he alleged Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose. The podcast has been taken down, but the lawsuit has been filed, according to a Houston-2 report.
Ye alleged Floyd had to die from fentanyl use, because Derek Chauvin's knee "wasn't even on his neck like that."
Floyd's death sparked nationwide Black Lives Matter and antifa protests, riots, looting, arson, and destruction. It also raised the "defund the police" movement in the 2020 presidential election cycle.
Ye's remarks might have come from testimony Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker gave that ruled fentanyl use and heart disease were contributing factors in Floyd's official cause of death, albeit not a direct cause.
Dr. Vik Bebarta, an emergency physician and toxicologist, testified Floyd died because of how Chauvin pressed his knee down on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes as he begged to be let up because he could not breathe, according to the report.
Lawyers for Roxie Washington, the mother of Gianna Floyd, alleged Ye made "malicious falsehoods" and "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 interests of the child are priority," attorney Nuru Witherspoon, partner at The Witherspoon Law Group, wrote in a press release. "George Floyd's daughter is being traumatized by Kanye West's comments, and he's creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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