OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
4:20 PM – Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Alec Baldwin, an American actor and producer, has reached a settlement in a $25 million defamation lawsuit brought against him by a Gold Star family.
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Gold Star families refer to “families of military members who have died in the line of duty, meant to honor the service member’s ultimate sacrifice while acknowledging their family’s loss, grief and continued healing,” according to uso.org
The lawsuit sparked from one of Baldwin’s Instagram posts after the actor advised his followers to taunt the family of a Marine who had passed away, according to investigative journalist Emily Miller.
The fallen Marine, Cpl. Rylee McCollum, and his family is being represented by attorney Dennis Postiglione. Postiglione confirmed the news about the lawsuit settlement to Miller in a statement.
“My clients are happy that this matter is over,” Postiglione said. “They look forward to moving on, without Alec Baldwin in their lives.”
The actor dealt with legal action on four counts after telling his 2.4 million Instagram followers to target the fallen Marine’s widow, Jiennah, and his sisters, Cheyenne and Roice, back in 2022.
The Gold Star family filed the lawsuit after facing online hate and harassment as a result of Baldwin’s social media post.
According to reports, Baldwin called Roice an “insurrectionist” after she posted a picture of the January 6th demonstration. After receiving clearance from law enforcement, Roice made it known to the public that she was not present at the U.S. Capitol that day.
The Gold Star family claimed to have received hate mail and death threats after Baldwin’s post, even in public places like the grocery store.
Miller said that the family was subjected to constant online hate, being called names like “White supremacists and Nazis,” and they had also received comments implying that Rylee’s death was “futile.”
The incident occurred just four months after the Marine lost his life at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan due to a suicide bomber, while his wife Jiennah was eight months pregnant.
The McCollum family originally filed a $25 million lawsuit in their home state of Wyoming, which Baldwin rejected on jurisdictional grounds. However, the family re-filed the case in New York, where Baldwin resides, but Judge Edgardo Ramos dismissed it.
Miller stated that the McCollum family claimed in their lawsuit that they were anticipating full compensation for their damages and to “punish, deter, and teach Baldwin a lesson that he frankly should have learned years ago.”
Judge Ramos stated that Baldwin calling Roice an “insurrectionist” lacked “actual malice and wasn’t false,” interpreting the term in accordance with Baldwin’s definition to include everyone who attended the protest in Washington, D.C., on January 6th, 2021.
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