Alec Baldwin has just been hit with a $25 million defamation lawsuit from the family of a U.S. Marine killed in Afghanistan after the embattled Hollywood star publicly smeared the fallen hero’s sister as an “insurrectionist.”
Lance Cpl. Rylee James McCollum was one of the 13 U.S. service members killed in the August 26, 2021, suicide bombing at the Kabul airport during Democrat President Joe Biden’s botched Afghanistan evacuation.
After the fallen troop’s name became national news, Baldwin falsely accused one of Rylee McCollum’s sisters, Roice, of being an “insurrectionist.”
The federal suit was filed in the Southern District of New York on Friday by the family of Marine Lance Corporal Rylee J. McCollum.
The family originally filed a suit in Wyoming but that case was dismissed in May because the court said it didn’t have jurisdiction over Baldwin, who lives in New York.
“Baldwin’s conduct was negligent and reckless as he should have known that making the allegations he did against Plaintiffs to his millions of followers would cause Plaintiffs harm,” the suit says.
The dispute stems from a post that Baldwin made on his Instagram page.
After Rylee McCollum was killed, Baldwin sent the family $5,000 as a “tribute to a fallen soldier.”
However, Baldwin later discovered that one of Rylee’s sisters, Roice, was in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021.
Roice had posted a picture of herself near the Washington Monument on social media, leading Baldwin to leap to the conclusion that she was a “January 6th rioter.”
“Are you the same woman I sent the $ for your sister’s husband who was killed during the Afghanistan exit?” Baldwin wrote in a public comment to Roice.
“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.”
The sister said she never went inside the Capitol, was peacefully protesting, and was already interviewed by the FBI who did not charge her.
“Your activities resulted in the unlawful destruction of government property, the death of a law enforcement officer, an assault on the certification of the presidential election,” Baldwin wrote.
“I reposted your photo. Good luck.”
Following Baldwin’s public smear, the family was bombarded with threats and hate mail, prompting the lawsuit,
Within 20 minutes of his post, Roice began to receive hostile, aggressive and hateful messages from Baldwin’s followers, the lawsuit said.
One message said “Get raped and die, you worthless [expletive]. Your brother got what he deserved.” Roice forwarded this message on to Baldwin, sarcastically thanking him for the post.
Baldwin ultimately followed the person who sent the message on Instagram. He also chimed in on the feed, calling Roice an insurrectionist and claiming she participated in the riot.
He also misidentified Jiennah as an insurrectionist in one Instagram comment, although she was not in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. People began sending hateful and threatening messages Jiennah and Cheyenne McCollum, Rylee’s eldest sister.
Other messages called on Baldwin to get a refund of his money and comparing the McCollum family to ISIS and Nazis,
