Left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker filed a $72.5 million defamation lawsuit against conservative pundit and CNN contributor Scott Jennings on Tuesday, alleging Jennings falsely accused him of calling for the lynching of Black Americans by airing an edited video from a 2024 livestream on his show.
By Siladitya Ray, Forbes Staff
Key Facts
In a filing made before the D.C. federal court, Piker accused Jennings of defamation, defamation by implication, and portraying him in a false light, and is seeking $27.5 million in compensatory damages and $45 million in punitive damages.
The complaint centers on the August 11 episode of the conservative pundit’s radio program and podcast, The Scott Jennings Show, where Piker alleges Jennings falsely told listeners that the streamer had a “plan of returning our country to lynchings,” while airing a misleading video of his remarks.
The 42-second video that aired on Jennings’ show was shared by the National Republican Senatorial Committee five days earlier on X, and appeared to show Piker describing himself as a “racist” and expressing support for a return to an era of lynchings.
The filing alleges that the video combined footage from three separate Twitch livestreams, rearranged the sequence of Piker’s remarks, and edited out the YouTube debate between two Black political commentators that the streamer was reacting to.
Piker’s lawyers allege the clip omitted his opening words, “He said,” from remarks in which he was sarcastically mocking a Black conservative commentator featured in the YouTube debate who had blamed “woke DAs” for policies harming Black Americans, making it appear as though Piker was expressing his own views.
The lawsuit also alleges that Jennings added a caption to the broadcast falsely quoting Piker saying, “Let’s go back to a better time when lynchings were happening,” altering the streamer’s “sarcastic question” into a “declaration.”
On the August 11 broadcast of his show, Jennings directly addressed Black listeners, warning them to pay close attention to Piker’s remarks before playing the 42-second video clip. Jennings described Piker as a “radical socialist streamer” and claimed he was Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s “best friend.” After playing the clip, Jennings warned of Democratic campaigns adopting the “Piker plan of returning our country to lynchings,” and claimed Piker was “calling for Black voters to be lynched.” Jennings shared this segment of his show on X, where the video had around 2.7 million views at the time of publication.
“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 filings state.
Piker is one of the most prominent left-wing streamers and social media figures, with more than 3.1 million Twitch followers, 2 million YouTube subscribers and 1.9 million Instagram followers. Piker has campaigned with several progressive and socialist candidates during primaries and ahead of the midterm elections, but he remains controversial among some Democrats. While the likes of El-Sayed have campaigned alongside Piker, other more centrist Democrats, have attacked his comments on Israel, Hamas, and accused him of being antisemitic. Earlier this month, CNN reported that El-Sayed had privately told Piker that his Israel rhetoric was hurting the Democrat’s Senate campaign.
Piker addressed the lawsuit during a Twitch livestream Tuesday, and argued the case was “about truth in the media.” He accused conservative commentators of spreading falsehoods about rivals without facing consequences. “I don’t think you should be able to get away with lying like this,” Piker said, and added, “If these guys will not hold up ethics in media and ethics in journalism…then someone has to fight back.”
Here’s What Hasan Piker Said And Why It’s So Controversial (Forbes)
How Left-Wing Twitch Streamer Hasan Piker Has Divided Democrats (Forbes)
