Kanye West is being sued for $250 million by George Floyd’s daughter, for comments he made over the circumstances of his death.
Attorneys for the Floyd family have issued a cease desist letter to the rapper, claiming that George’s daughter Gianna has been “re-traumatised”.
They also claimed that the 45-year-old is “creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her”.
Rozie Washington, Gianna’s mother and sole beneficiary of George’s estate, is suing Kanye, his business partners and associates on her daughter’s behalf for “harassment, misappropriation, defamation, and the infliction of emotional distress”.
In a press release, Witherspoon Law Group and Dixon & Dixon Attorneys at Law, who are representing Gianna, claimed: “Kanye West knowingly made blatantly false statements about George Floyd’s death to promote his brands, and increase marketing value and revenue for himself, his business partners, and associates.”
Citing Kanye’s remarks on the podcast Drink Champs, they continued: “During the podcast interview, Kanye West stated malicious falsehoods about George Floyd to profit from Mr. Floyd’s horrendous death and his family’s trauma.”
“The full interview has since been removed from YouTube and RevoltTV, but clips of the rapper’s rant continue to be viewed and shared on social media platforms by millions across the world.”
They continued “The interests of the child are priority. George Floyd’s daughter is being re-traumatised by Kanye West’s comments and he’s creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her.”
They claimed Kanye’s comments are a “repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd’s life and to profit from his inhumane death”.
In a cease and desist letter published by TMZ, attorneys for the Floyd family alleged they are “very distressed and hurt by the allegations” the 45-year-old made.
They demanded that Kanye “immediately cease and desist, and remove the Drink Champs interview and all similar statements regarding George Floyd from every podcast, website, advertisement, and social media site, no matter the platform or medium”.
The cease and desist letter also demanded that Kanye, along with his attorneys, employees, agents, partners, associates and representatives “refrain from publishing or causing to be published any other audio, video, statement, post, etc. regarding George Floyd, his estate, his family, and the circumstances surrounding his death, including but not limited to his manner of death”.
On May 25, 2020, George died in hospital after he was pinned to the ground by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin while being arrested for allegedly using a fake $20 note in a shop.
A video of the harrowing incident went viral on social media, sparking mass protests across the US and the world.
Following a three-week trial, the jury found Derek guilty on all three counts against him – second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, last April.
