Alec Baldwin has won the dismissal of a AU$35 million (US$25 million, £20 million) defamation lawsuit filed by a family of a US Marine who was killed in Afghanistan.
Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum's sisters and wife alleged the actor exposed them to an influx of social media hatred after he claimed one of the sisters was an 'insurrectionist' for going to a Trump rally on 6 January 2021.
The actor had initially donated AU$3,600 (US$5,000, £4,000) to a GoFundMe page that was set up to support the family after the Marine passed away.
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However, after the Marine’s sister, Roice McCollum, posted a ‘throwback’ picture from the protest on 2 January 2022, the actor commented, asking: “Are you the same woman that I sent the $ to for your sister’s husband who was killed during the Afghanistan exit?"
Baldwin then followed up his comment with a public post, noting the ‘irony of sincerely wanting to honour your brother and the fact you are [an] insurrectionist'.
Roice responded privately to Baldwin claiming that her protest was ‘perfectly legal’, while her representatives say Roice acted in a ‘peaceful, law-abiding manner’ during the protest.
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Roice subsequently filed for defamation in the federal court in Wyoming, with her lawyers claiming the post led to threats and vitriol from Baldwin’s followers.
She claimed she and her family had received ‘hundreds upon hundreds of hateful messages' off the back of her interaction with Baldwin.
The actor denied any wrongdoing and sought the dismissal of the suit based on a jurisdictional error, which the judge granted on Wednesday (May 4), noting that Baldwin lives in New York.
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Judge Nancy D. Freudenthal wrote in her decision: “Mr. Baldwin’s public post on his own Instagram feed cannot reasonably be considered expressly aimed at Wyoming given Mr. Baldwin’s 2.4 million Instagram followers.
“Further, the allegations that Mr. Baldwin was aware that his followers are sympathetic to his political affiliation, that they are more likely to be politically active and opinionated, that he fueled the firestorm of hatred from his followers, and did nothing to remedy what he had started, also are not intentional actions by Mr. Baldwin that were expressly aimed at Wyoming.”
The ruling did note that the Marine’s family can attempt to file again.
Baldwin’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, said in a statement to Rolling Stone: “We are pleased with this victory.
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"This is a significant step toward the complete dismissal of the lawsuit, which seeks to punish Mr. Baldwin for expressing his political opinion.”
Topics: Celebrity
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