George Floyd's daughter announces $250M lawsuit against Kanye West
Taryn Ryder - Yahoo Entertainment
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The mother of George Floyd's daughter announced they are filing a $250 million lawsuit against Kanye West over his recent statements about Floyd's death. The rapper, who goes by Ye, erroneously declared on a podcast that Floyd died from fentanyl, not as the result of police brutality.
"Kanye's comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd's life and to profit from his inhumane death," attorney Pat D. Dixon III said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the goal with the lawsuit is to "hold Mr. West accountable" for his "flagrant remarks."
The lawsuit will go after West's "business partners" and "associates" as the comments caused "harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress." Gianna is the sole beneficiary of Floyd's estate.
"The interests of the child are priority. George Floyd's daughter is being retraumatized by Kanye West’s comments and he’s creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her," added Attorney Nuru Witherspoon.
Roxie Washington, acting on behalf of her and Floyd's child, Gianna, retained the Witherspoon Law Group and Dixon & Dixon Attorneys at Law. They fired off a cease and desist to West.
"Mr. Floyd's cause of death is well-settled through evidence presented in courts of law during the criminal and civil trials that were the result of his untimely and horrific death. Nevertheless, you have maliciously made statements that are inaccurate and unfounded, causing damage to Mr. Floyd's estate and his family," the letter reads, which was obtained by Yahoo Entertainment.
West brought up Floyd on the Drink Champs podcast while touting conservative pundit Candace Owens's documentary The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM.
"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," West said. "They hit [Floyd] with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy's knee wasn't even on his neck like that."
Floyd's cause of death was ruled as a homicide by a medical examiner. The autopsy report said he died from "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression." Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes as seen in the video that sparked 2020's social justice movement. The autopsy report noted other "significant" conditions, including hypertensive heart disease, fentanyl intoxication and recent methamphetamine use.
Floyd's brother is mulling a lawsuit against West as well. Civil rights attorney Lee Merritt, who represented Floyd's family, said they are considering suing West for intentional infliction of emotional distress as a defamation lawsuit is not possible.
West has stirred controversy for two weeks since his "White Lives Matter" stunt, but has remained steadfast in his beliefs.
