Podcast: Play in new window | Download ()
Subscribe: Android | RSS | More
George Zimmerman, the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in self-defense in 2012, has filed a $265 million defamation lawsuit against Democrat presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg for implying on Twitter that Zimmerman is a racist and white supremacist murderer.
Filed in the circuit court of Polk County, Florida, the lawsuit seeks $265 million from the two hard-left candidates for tweets that don’t name but strongly suggest, because Zimmerman’s name is so closely tied with Martin’s, that Zimmerman is guilty of wrongdoing.
Zimmerman was acquitted of second-degree murder after facts surfaced in court that destroyed the leftist narrative that Martin was an innocent victim. The 17-year-old Martin was smashing Zimmerman’s head into the ground when Zimmerman shot him.
The Tweets
The tweets sound innocent enough.
Responding to a tweet that Martin would be 25 years old, Warren wrote that her “heart goes out to @SybrinaFulton and Trayvon’s family and friends. He should still be with us today. We need to end gun violence and racism. And we need to build a world where all of our children — especially young Black boys — can grow up safe and free.”
Buttigieg’s tweet was even worse. “Trayvon Martin would have been 25 today. How many 25th birthdays have been stolen from us by white supremacy, gun violence, prejudice, and fear?” he wrote. “#BlackLivesMatter.”
Before filing the lawsuit, Zimmeran’s attorney, conservative judicial activist Larry Klayman, demanded a retraction from the pair.
“These false and defamatory widely published tweets, which also constitute defamation by implication, were made with knowledge that George Zimmerman was acquitted of murder as the jury found that he acted in self defense,” he wrote.
Klayman’s letter accused the pair of tweeting the falsehoods with malice, and gave them 24 hours to retract and “mitigate the great damage which you both have caused.”
He also demanded a public apology.
The Lawsuit
Warren and Buttgieg did not retract, and so Zimmerman did as he promised. He sued.
The lawsuit notes that Zimmerman was a “minority advocate” who “led a community-wide effort to seek justice for Sherman Ware, a homeless black man who was attacked by the son of a white police officer.”
Zimmerman was also a mentor for black teenagers with parents in prison, the lawsuit observes.
The lawsuit also details Martin’s budding career as a thug and criminal, “often getting into fights” and being suspended from school three times. As well, “Trayvon self-identified as a gangster and used a Twitter handle that indicated affiliation with a Miami street gang.”
Fulton, Trayvon’s mother, couldn’t handle the young thug, and so kicked him out of the house. Martin landed at his father’s place.
After describing how the two crossed paths, the lawsuit tells the story that Warren and Buttigieg didn’t tell:
[Trayvon] sucker-punched Zimmerman in the nose, breaking it, and straddled him as he fell to the ground. Trayvon then began slamming Zimmerman’s head onto the concrete sidewalk and tried to smother Zimmerman as he yelled for help at least 14 times according to 911 audio recordings. Trayvon was also raining down blows on Zimmerman “MMA Style.”… Fearing he would go unconscious from the continued bashing of his head onto the concrete sidewalk, he reached for his legal firearm and discharged a single shot to stop the assault. Trayvon requested of Zimmerman, “tell Mama ‘Licia I’m sorry,” referring to his stepmother Alicia Stanley.
Noting that “‘George Zimmerman’ is 100% synonymous with Trayvon Martin” and that Buttigieg attended the Million Hoodie March in South Bend, the lawsuit alleges that Buttigieg “recklessly implied that Trayvon Martin’s death was a result of ‘white supremacy, gun violence, prejudice, and fear,’ all of which refer to Zimmerman and the public would understand as referring only to George Zimmerman, who is known to have caused Trayvon’s death by shooting him.”
Warren did much the same, the lawsuit alleges.
Both candidates acted with actual malice because they “knew or had reason to know that what they published was false or entertained serious doubts as to the truth of what they published,” and “intentionally avoided learning the truth” and “were subjectively aware that the tweets were fabricated in large part as set forth above as they were not corroborated by anyone.”
The two are “part of a leftist/Democrat political partisanship scheme or parallel concerted action to injure and destroy Plaintiff Zimmerman’s reputation and profession,” the lawsuit alleges.
Warren tweeted a similar lie about the shooting of “gentle giant” Michael Brown. She accused the white cop who shot Brown in self defense, Darren Wilson, of murder. Like Zimmerman, Wilson was acquitted of wrongdoing.
In December, Zimmerman sued Martin’s parents and others for $100 million for covering up evidence in his trial.
H/T: Fox News
Photo: AP Images
R. Cort Kirkwood is a long-time contributor to The New American and a former newspaper editor.
