Hasan Piker Lawsuit: $72.5M Claim Against Scott Jennings Over Misquoted Lynch Joke

Hasan Piker, a prominent socialist commentator, filed a defamation lawsuit on Tuesday seeking $72.5 million from conservative commentator Scott Jennings. The complaint was submitted to the US district court for the District of Columbia. Piker alleges that Jennings misrepresented his words to portray him as a violent racist who supported the lynching of Black people.

The legal action centers on a podcast episode and a social media post from August 2024. According to the filing, Jennings told listeners that Piker had a plan to return the country to lynchings. He later posted on social media that Piker stated the USA should resume lynchings against Black people. Piker argues that Jennings deliberately twisted his remarks to present them as sincere views rather than sarcasm.

The incident originated from a Twitch broadcast in August 2024. During that show, Piker was mocking the extreme position of a guest commentator. That guest had argued that woke district attorneys were to blame for policies harming Black Americans. Piker summarized the guest's stance by saying, He said, We need more Klansmen, okay? Can we go back to a better time when lynchings were happening? This is what I like as a Black man.

The lawsuit states that Jennings used a 42-second video that was cropped, shortened, and rearranged. The manipulated version played on Jennings's show on August 11 left out the words he said and other cues indicating ridicule. Jennings also added a caption presented as a direct quote from Piker: Let's go back to a better time when lynchings were happening. The court document notes that Piker never said those words and that neither the original broadcast nor the edited video contains them.

Piker is asking for a jury trial to decide the case. He seeks $27.5 million in compensatory damages and an additional $45 million in punitive damages. The complaint notes that Jennings was publicly known at the time to be a candidate for Donald Trump's White House press secretary position. The filing suggests this gave Jennings an additional reason to attack a prominent left-wing commentator who had been criticized by the President.

Jennings has not commented publicly on the lawsuit. In an August 11 post on X, he linked to the video and referred to Piker's support for Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for a US Senate seat in Michigan. Jennings wrote that El-Sayed's best pal and campaign partner says the USA should resume lynchings against Black people. The Guardian has contacted Jennings for comment on the new filing.