Hasan Piker files $72.5 million defamation suit against Scott Jennings

Progressive pundit Hasan Piker has filed a $72.5 million defamation lawsuit against conservative commentator Scott Jennings, claiming Jennings deliberately distorted his remarks to falsely portray him as a supporter of lynching Black people. Piker, in a 38-page complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, D.C., said Jennings defamed him on an Aug. 11 episode of “The Scott Jennings Show” when he played video from a 2024 livestream of Piker’s show that had been doctored. “Mr. Jennings did not merely mischaracterize something Mr. Piker said,” the complaint says. “He took a false, fabricated, and manipulated video of Mr. Piker, added a made-up quotation that Mr. Piker never uttered, and then made accusations that went beyond even what the manipulated footage purported to show.” Jennings, who is also a CNN commentator, described Piker on the broadcast as a “radical socialist streamer” and Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s “best friend” who has been “calling for Black voters to be lynched.” “Listen for yourself and understand what the socialists have in store for the black community,” Jennings posted.

“Mr. Piker has never advocated the lynching of Black Americans, or anyone else,” the complaint says. “He has never called for a return to lynchings. And he has never proposed anything remotely resembling the supposed plan that Mr. Jennings falsely attributed to him.” Jennings