Hasan Piker has filed a defamation lawsuit against political commentator Scott Jennings, accusing him of falsely claiming that Piker supported violence against Black voters through a misleadingly edited video clip.
The lawsuit, filed after an August 11 podcast episode, alleged that Jennings falsely told a national audience that Piker was “calling for Black voters to be lynched” and presented manipulated footage from one of Piker’s livestreams as evidence. Piker is seeking at least $27.5 million in compensatory damages and $45 million in punitive damages, according to Bloomberg Law.
The complaint claimed Jennings did not simply misunderstand Piker’s comments but altered the context of a 2024 livestream and added meaning that Piker never intended. Jennings has not publicly responded to the lawsuit.
“Abdul El-Sayed’s best friend”
The dispute focuses on a segment from Jennings’ podcast, where the CNN political commentator discussed Piker’s connection to Democratic politician Abdul El-Sayed.
During the episode, Jennings described Piker as “Abdul El-Sayed’s best friend.” Jennings then proceeded to address Black voters and criticized Democrats for associating with Piker. Jennings also played a portion of a 2024 livestream from Piker.
“If Democratic campaigns are adopting the Piker plan of returning our country to lynchings, that just might happen,” Jennings said.
According to the lawsuit, the original livestream showed Piker mocking a conservative Black commentator who argued that policies supported by “woke DAs” were harming Black Americans.
Piker’s attorneys said he was using sarcasm to imitate that commentator’s argument and was not expressing support for historical racial violence.
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What does the complaint say?
The complaint states that Piker was ridiculing the idea that society was better before the civil rights movement. “Mr. Jennings did not merely mischaracterize something Mr. Piker said. 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,” the lawsuit read.
The lawsuit alleged that Jennings falsely suggested Piker personally advocated returning to an era of lynching.
“Mr. Jennings presented those accusations as fact, telling his viewers to ‘[l]isten for yourself’ about Mr. Piker, knowing that he was playing a falsified video of Mr. Piker for those viewers, and completely disregarding the truth of Mr. Piker’s actual words,” it also noted.