Actor Alec Baldwin is facing a $25 million lawsuit from the family of a US Marine who was killed in Afghanistan. The legal action is based on allegations that Baldwin incorrectly described the soldier’s sister as a participant in the Capitol riot.
The 63-year-old actor is caught in a lawsuit seeking millions, citing ‘defamation, invasion of privacy, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress’. These details were disclosed in court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
Baldwin had previously sent $5,000 (£3,674) to Jiennah Crayton, the widow of Marine Lance Corporal Rylee J McCollum, after the soldier was killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul. This assistance was intended for their newborn daughter, as per reports.
Allegedly, the actor got in touch with McCollum’s sister, Roice, to coordinate the donation. Baldwin apparently came across a photo posted on Instagram by the Marine’s sister on January 3, 2022, showing her at the Washington Monument on the day of the Capitol riot in January 2021.
Upon seeing the post, Baldwin is said to have commented, “Are you the same woman that I sent the $ to for your sister’s husband who was killed during the Afghanistan exit?”, before sending her a private message, according to the court documents.
In the private message, he reportedly wrote, ‘When I sent the $ for your late brother, out of real respect for his service to this country, I didn’t know you were a January 6th rioter.’
Despite Roice allegedly stating that she protested legally and had previously spoken to the FBI, Baldwin purportedly informed her that he was planning to repost the photo and wished her, ‘Good luck.’
“While she was present at the demonstration, Roice did not take part in, nor did she support or condone the rioting that erupted,” court documents said, according to Newsweek.
The court documents reportedly referred to a now-deleted social media post that the actor shared, in which he explained that he had previously donated money to McCollum’s family and allegedly referred to Roice as an ‘insurrectionist’ and a ‘rioter’.
Roice claimed to have received ‘hostile, aggressive, hateful messages’ from Baldwin’s followers, including one that said, ‘Get raped and die, worthless c**t.’ Additionally, her sister Cheyenne and McCollum’s widow also reportedly received vitriolic messages.
The court documents stated, ‘Plaintiffs are informed and believe and allege that Baldwin did nothing to remedy what he had started. Plaintiffs are informed and believe and allege that at no time did Baldwin discourage these posts even though he was copied on many of them.’
The actor is also accused of reposting the picture ‘with the full intent of causing irreparable harm to each of the Plaintiffs’.
These allegations come after Baldwin released his phone to investigators this month, as they continue to investigate the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was shot dead after Baldwin pulled the trigger of a gun while they were on the set of the movie ‘Rust’