George Zimmerman has sued Senator Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, accusing the Democratic presidential candidates of defamation over tweets about the death of Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman filed the lawsuit seeking $265 million in Polk County, Florida on Tuesday, in response to Warren and Buttigieg’s tweets on February 5, which would have been Martin’s 25th birthday.
In 2012, Zimmerman fatally shot 17-year-old Martin during an altercation, and was acquitted on all charges in the case on grounds of self-defense.
His new suit accuses the two Democrat candidates of using Martin’s death ‘as a pretext to demagogue and falsely brand Zimmerman as a white supremacist and racist to their millions of Twitter followers.’
George Zimmerman has sued Senator Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, accusing the Democratic presidential candidates of defamation
Zimmerman filed the lawsuit seeking $265 million in Polk County, Florida on Tuesday, in response to Warren and Buttigieg’s tweets on February 5
In 2012, Zimmerman fatally shot 17-year-old Martin (above) during an altercation, and was acquitted on all charges in the case on grounds of self-defense
Buttigieg and Warren, who have both faced questions about support among black voters, used Martin’s birthday as an opportunity to tweet about the case.
‘Trayvon Martin would have been 25 today. How many 25th birthdays have been stolen from us by white supremacy, gun violence, prejudice, and fear? #BlackLivesMatter,’ Buttigieg tweeted to his 1.6 million followers.
Warren chimed in: “My heart goes out to @SybrinaFulton and Trayvon’s family and friends. He should still be with us today. We need to end gun violence and racism. And we need to build a world where all of our children—especially young Black boys—can grow up safe and free.”
In the tweet to her 3.6 million followers, Warren added four photos of Martin as a young child, between the ages of 4 and 10.
Zimmerman’s suit argues that the the tweets grossly mischaracterize the well-known facts of the case.
‘George Zimmerman was the victim of an unprovoked attack and was receiving a relentless beating that was causing him severe injuries when he eventually fired a single shot from a legally owned firearm to stop the attack to save his life,’ the lawsuit states.
‘Gun violence,’ on the other hand, is generally understood to be ‘reckless and indiscriminate use of illegally owned firearms,’ the suit argues.
Zimmerman’s suit vehemently argues against the notion that he is a ‘white supremacist’ or ‘racist’.
The suit argues that the accusation of prejudice is ‘a smear that disparages and defames Zimmerman, a man who is Hispanic, a minority advocate, and an Obama supporter.’
‘In his spare time, Zimmerman was a social activist and minority advocate,’ the lawsuit states.
‘He had led a community-wide effort to seek justice for Sherman Ware, a homeless black man who was attacked by the son of a white police officer. Zimmerman was also acting as a mentor in a program for African American teens whose parents were in prison,’ the suit continues.
Zimmerman, a member of the neighborhood watch in his gated community, has always maintained that Martin attacked him without provocation as he was attempting to identify why the teen was loitering in the area, where there had been a rash of recent robberies.
The lawsuit accuses Warren and Buttigieg of smearing Zimmerman ‘as part of their political agenda to garner votes in the black community in particular before the 2020 election.’
Read Zimmerman’s full lawsuit
In December, Zimmerman filed a separate lawsuit against Martin’s family and Florida prosecutors, claiming that they engineered false evidence in the murder trial.
The lawsuit filed in December in Polk County Circuit Court seeks $100million in civil damages for defamation, abuse of civil process and conspiracy.
It alleges that the prosecution’s key witness in Zimmerman’s 2013 murder trial, Rachel Jeantel, was an imposter coached by the family and their lawyers.
The lead defendant in the suit is Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother. Fulton became a nationally-acclaimed advocate for social justice and reducing gun violence in the wake of her son’s death, and is now running for a seat on the Miami-Dade County Commission.
The second defendant is the family’s attorney, Ben Crump. He is accused of defamation and attempting to ‘deprive Zimmerman of his constitutional and other legal rights’.
The lawsuit also names Harper Collins, accusing the publisher of defaming Zimmerman by publishing Crump’s book, Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People, ‘with actual malice knowing the untruth or at a minimum a reckless disregard for the truth’.
Crump responded to the lawsuit on behalf of himself and Martin’s parents in a statement.
‘This plaintiff continues to display a callous disregard for everyone but himself, revictimizing individuals whose lives were shattered by his own misguided actions,’ he said.
‘He would have us believe that he is the innocent victim of a deep conspiracy, despite the complete lack of any credible evidence to support his outlandish claims.
‘This tale defies all logic, and it’s time to close the door on these baseless imaginings.’