Kanye West’s newest controversial remarks might land him in a authorized battle.
The artist and entrepreneur, who has modified his title to Ye, spoke on a current episode of the podcast “Drink Champs,” the place he mentioned the dying of George Floyd and a number of other different matters.
“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out. One of the issues that his two roommates mentioned was they need a tall man like me, and the day that he died, he mentioned a prayer for eight minutes,” West mentioned. “They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the man’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”
Former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck, in accordance with Chauvin trial testimony by the health worker who carried out Floyd’s post-mortem and stood by his preliminary discovering that his dying was the results of “cardiopulmonary arrest” that occurred throughout “legislation enforcement subdural, restraint, and neck compression.”
Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker mentioned throughout his testimony that Floyd’s coronary heart illness and use of fentanyl had been contributing elements to his dying, however not the direct trigger.
Civil rights legal professional Lee Merritt, who has represented the Floyd family, tweeted Sunday that they’re contemplating authorized motion towards West.
“While one can’t defame the useless, the family of #GeorgeFloyd is contemplating swimsuit for Kanye’s false statements concerning the method of his dying,” Merritt tweeted. “Claiming Floyd died from fentanyl not the brutality established criminally and civilly undermines & diminishes the Floyd family’s struggle.”
Merritt advised CNN he was alerted to West’s feedback by Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, who advised him he needed to pursue a defamation swimsuit towards the celeb.
While that is not legally potential as a result of George Floyd is deceased, Merritt mentioned, there are different authorized avenues to pursue, together with the Floyd family probably suing for intentional infliction of emotional misery.
“I’ve put collectively a working crew to research [West’s] statements and to research the supply of these statements,” Merritt mentioned.
CNN has reached out to a consultant of West for extra remark.
West’s remarks about Floyd come amid backlash for current social media posts by West that had been criticized as antisemitic and his choice to decorate himself and a number of other fashions “White Lives Matter” shirts at a current trend present.
Video of Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck for greater than eight minutes sparked protests and requires justice around the globe.
Chauvin was convicted in April 2021 on expenses of second-degree unintentional assassination, third-degree assassination and second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to 22 and half years in jail.