Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson is reportedly suing Fox News and Jeanine Pirro for saying he directed protesters to attack a police officer.
According to TMZ, which first reported the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Mckesson claims Pirro was on "Fox & Friends" last September talking about a legal case filed by the officer who was injured during protests in Baton Rouge, La.
DeRay claims Pirro blamed him for directing the violence in those protests, and added, "You've got a police officer who was injured, he was injured at the direction of DeRay Mckesson."
"Pirro's statements are untrue and further a narrative that I, and other activists, engage in violent protest," the Baltimore resident said in message to The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday.
"I take statements that portray untrue statements about me seriously," he said.
The complaint says 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," according to the Sun.
"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's attorney Matthew Melewski told the Sun.
A spokeswoman for Fox News told the Sun that Pirro's statements are protected speech.
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