Hasan Piker sues Scott Jennings over remarks about lynching

Politics · First reported 28 Oct, 17:41 · Updated 18:56

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Fikkar Bonggi · CC BY-SA 4.0

Hasan Piker has filed a $72.5 million defamation lawsuit against Scott Jennings, alleging that Jennings aired edited video that misrepresented Piker’s remarks about lynching. Jennings did not immediately respond to NBC News; The New York Post reported he declined to comment. The case has not been resolved in the supplied coverage.

Piker’s complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., seeks $27.5 million in compensatory damages and $45 million in punitive damages.
Piker alleges that an August segment of Jennings’ show used manipulated footage and a caption that made Piker appear to support lynching.
The complaint says Piker was mocking a conservative commentator’s remarks during a 2024 livestream and that the edited clip omitted context, including the words “he said.”
Piker’s lawyers say they sought a retraction in August; the complaint says no substantive response followed.
The Daily Wire reports that Piker said in a livestream the lawsuit was not just about Jennings, and notes that Piker is a public figure who would need to meet the actual-malice standard described in the article.

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Key facts

Amount sought: $72.5 million: $27.5 million compensatory and $45 million punitive damages.
Filing: Tuesday, in federal court in Washington, D.C.
Disputed segment: An August episode of The Scott Jennings Show.
Disputed clip views: 3 million views on X as of Wednesday, according to NBC News.