A Gold Star family is suing actor Alec Baldwin for at least $25 million for exposing them to online hate and vitriol after Baldwin accused the fallen Marine's sister of being an "insurrectionist."
The widow and sisters of late Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20 – one of the 13 killed by a suicide bomber Aug. 26, 2021, outside Hamid Karzai International Airport – filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York after a previous lawsuit filed in Wyoming was dismissed because Baldwin lives in New York, the New York Post reported.
The tale began with a gesture of goodwill from Baldwin, who sent one of the sisters, Roice, a check for $5,000 for the widow Jiennah and her newborn baby as a "tribute to a fallen soldier," according to the report.
Months later social media alerted Baldwin of a photo posted by Roice at the Washington Monument on Jan. 6, 2022 – a year after the storming of the Capitol – sparking vitriol from Instagram users and Baldwin, who called her an "insurrectionist."
The lawsuit says Baldwin's "seemingly benevolent overtures turned into a nightmare" for the McCollum family.
"Are you the same woman I sent the $ for your sister's husband who was killed during the Afghanistan exit?" Baldwin wrote to Roice on Instagram, according to the lawsuit.
"When I sent the $ for your late brother, out of real respect for his service to this country, I didn't know you were a January 6th rioter," the actor wrote in a direct message to Roice, the lawsuit added.
Roice shot back "protesting is perfectly legal," adding she "already had my sit down with the FBI."
Baldwin then added more allegations of wrongdoing by Roice, without any evidence.
"I don't think so," Baldwin responded. "Your activities resulted in the unlawful destruction of government property, the death of a law enforcement officer, an assault on the certification of the presidential election. I reposted your photo. Good luck."
Then Baldwin reposted Roice's photo on his Instagram account to 2.4 million followers, calling out her participation on Jan. 6, 2021. Also, Baldwin called the widow Jiennah an "insurrectionist," but she was not in Washington, D.C., on that day, according to the lawsuit.
That led to "hostile, aggressive, hateful messages" from Baldwin's followers aimed at Roice and the family, the lawsuit alleges.
Jiennah, Roice, and her sister Cheyenne were accused of being white supremacists, were being likened to Nazis, and social media posters demanded they give back the $5,000 that Baldwin gave the family.
Baldwin did not do anything to stop the hateful vitriol after fueling it all with his false and hateful accusations, according to the lawsuit.
"Baldwin's conduct was negligent and reckless as he should have known that making the allegations he did against Plaintiffs to his millions of followers would cause Plaintiffs harm," the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit seeks a trial by jury and damages of at least $25 million for alleged invasion of privacy, defamation negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Baldwin, who once played former President Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live," mocking him in political attacks, including during the 2020 presidential campaign, also was holding the gun that went off and killed a woman on the set of the movie "Rust."
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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