OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Actor Alec Baldwin has more legal issues coming his way and these are not related to the shooting on the set of his movie “Rust.”
This time it is the family of a United States Marine who was killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan who is suing the actor for saying that the deceased Marine’s sister took part in the January 6, 2021 incident at the Capitol, Fox News reported.
The 63-year-old actor is named in a lawsuit seeking $25 million and alleging defamation, invasion of privacy, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
The lawsuit stems from a post that Baldwin shared on Instagram earlier this month after he gave $5,000 to the widow of a fallen soldier to help her with their newborn daughter. Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum was killed on Aug. 26 in Kabul in a suicide bombing as he was processing refugees amid the United States’ controversial withdrawal from the country.
When the actor heard of McCollum’s story, he reached out to McCollumn’s sister, Roice, and gave her $5,000 to give to her brother’s widow, Jinnah Crayton. He later called the check a “tribute to a fallen soldier.”
However, on Jan. 3, Roice shared a photo on Instagram that clearly gave Baldwin second thoughts about his tribute.
The picture showed that Roice was at the Washington monument on the day of the riot and did take part in the protest but was not involved in any of the riotings. But one of her neighbors turned her into the FBI.
“During the rioting, she was stuck in place outside the Capitol Building next to multiple police officers for hours after the rioting began due to the fact that so many people were around her and the area had been locked down,” the lawsuit said. “Later, a neighbor who was unhappy that Roice attended the demonstration turned her in to the authorities.”
The woman was interviewed by the FBI and found to be innocent of any wrongdoing.
But Baldwin was furious with her involvement and sent her text messages to that effect.
“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 actor said.
“Protesting is perfectly legal in the country and I’ve already had my sit down with the FBI. Thanks, have a nice day!” she said.
But Baldwin could not leave well enough alone.
“I don’t think so. 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,” the actor said. “I reposted your photo. Good luck.”
Baldwin did share the photo with his 2.4 million followers and called her an “insurrectionist.” He has since deleted the post.
But Roice, her sister Cheyenne and Jiennah are suing the actor over the direct message he sent her.
“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 court documents said.
“Baldwin’s comments were false, outrageous, defamatory, irresponsible, vindictive and caused – and continue to cause — plaintiffs severe emotional distress. Instead of being able to focus on grieving LCPL McCollum’s death and raising his newborn daughter, plaintiffs and their family are now fearful for their lives,” it said.
McCollum was killed in a suicide bombing during the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
“He wanted to be a Marine his whole life and carried around his rifle in his diapers and cowboy boots,” Roice McCollum, said. “He was determined to be in infantry and this was his first deployment.”
“Rylee was an amazing, man with a passion for the Marines. He was a son, a brother, a husband, and a father with a baby due in just 3 weeks,” she said.
