George Zimmerman announced on Tuesday his intention to sue for defamation Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren over tweets sent by the Democratic presidential candidates on what would have been Trayvon Martin’s birthday earlier this month.
In a lawsuit filed in circuit court in Polk County, Florida, Zimmerman lawyer Larry Klayman accuses Buttigieg and Warren of “defamation with actual malice or at a minimum a reckless disregard for the truth.”
The candidates’ tweets “defamed Zimmerman for political gain in misguided and malicious attempts to bolster their standings amongst African-American voters, all at Zimmerman’s expense.”
The lawsuit alleges that though the tweets don’t mention Zimmerman by name, they nonetheless created a “false impression of… Zimmerman, which… caused irreparable harm to him, his business and person and his calling, as well as to his good will and reputation, as well as harmed his family.”
The lawsuit is seeking damages “in excess of $265 million for loss of good will and reputation and financial and other damages as pled above in all counts.”
SEE ALSO: George Zimmerman on Black Lives Matter: ‘I see them as terrorists’
Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Florida resident Trayvon Martin in 2012 after Zimmerman claims the teenager attacked him. Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in a 2013 trial, but the case sparked a national debate about race, gun rights, and “stand your ground” laws along with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Both Buttigieg and Warren used the anniversary of Martin’s birthday to tie the incident to racism and gun violence.
“Trayvon Martin would have been 25 today,” said a tweet posted to the verified Twitter account for Buttigieg on Feb. 5. “How many 25th birthdays have been stolen from us by white supremacy, gun violence, prejudice, and fear? #BlackLivesMatter”
Trayvon Martin would have been 25 today.
— Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) February 5, 2020
How many 25th birthdays have been stolen from us by white supremacy, gun violence, prejudice, and fear?#BlackLivesMatter
Warren also tweeted, “My heart goes out to @SybrinaFulton [Trayvon’s mother] 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.”
My heart goes out to @SybrinaFulton and Trayvon’s family and friends. He should still be with us today.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 6, 2020
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. https://t.co/9lXXlRnvzL
SEE ALSO: Rachel Jeantel slams George Zimmerman: ‘You’re not a man’
This isn’t the first time Zimmerman has been in the news since the 2012 incident. In 2015, Zimmerman was injured in a shooting involving another man with whom he had been having an “ongoing dispute.” In 2016, he made headlines for attempting to auction off the Kel-Tel PF9 he used to shoot Martin, and in 2019, he announced his intention to sue Martin’s family for using fake witnesses to indict him.
Anybody remember the “news” people starting off with calling him a jew, because of his name? That got quashed in short order when they discovered “oh, hes actually mexican? he’s illlegal, right?”and that was sunk even faster. Ya gotta love the media; if its not something you would ever have thought of saying, they’ll beat you to it. their uninformed speculation IS part of our news, as they’ll remind you every chance they get
Speaking of going away. If Travon Martin didn’t die at 17, are these anti-gun politicians so sure he’d get to 25? They’re trying to squeeze the last ounce of notoriety from a dead thug made poster child.
Zimmerman seems to love attention, good, bad, or indifferent. I wish he would just go away. His actions in the Martin deal were stupid at best, planned at worst…and made smart gun owners targets of the gun loons, even more than they already were.
I’ve watched him over the years and he’s not a grandstanding prick like, well, ANY Demorat. His actions have been overscrutinized and while he may not have been doing the community watch thing as smartly as he could have, the fact of the matter is the little punk had a hold on his head and was bashing him into the concrete. Zimmerman has EVERY reason to fear for his life in IMMINENT peril, and was FULLY justified in killing that criminal punk on the spot. SO since opinions are like anuses, you can take yours and go pound sand.
I met and worked with George sometime ago probably about the same time as Nick M, if Nick is who I think he is. In my conversations with him he is still bothered about having to take a life. It has changed his life, he now has to look over his shoulder every where he goes. He gets pop shots taken at him, which are not reported, and people refuse him service, again not reported. George seems to have recieved more of his hispanic DNA from one of his parents than the other and the media reports he is a white suprimis. Funny, the gun culture accepts him where as a true white suprimis group would not. Then again I’ve never met a white suprimis who is not a low IQ idiot. My life experience opinion and I’m as white as you get. I’m glad he is suing those Marxist idiots just like the young kid who is suing the media for the misrepresintation of the kids in DC who happen to meet a Native American activist. Good luck George from the big guy a FGS, enjoyed working with you and God’s speed.
SUPREMACIST not SUPRIMIS…let’s not be so lazy.
”English Mother Fucker, do you speak it?!”
-Jules Winnfield-
😜
Why doesn’t a leftist every show pictures of Trayvon that he shows of himself? Like in his age when he attacked Mr Zimmerman? He wasn’t 12. He was 17 and 6’3.
One might think that Martin was significantly larger than Zimmerman, and started the fight?
A fake Cherokee accusing a Hispanic male of white supremacy for self defense against a black thug. It would be funny if it wasn’t so ridiculous. And the Democratic 2020 Presidential circus goes on and on.
I feel that blm is just a bunch of terrorists also! Next time you hear one of blm leaders name, google it, all are convicts, trying to get over!
The
Warren/Butikeg comments are a technique used daily by Dems and Libs in nearly every communication. Make statements completely unsupported by fact and the media runs with it merely on the basis of who said it. No attempt is made to fact check. No correction is made if or when the facts are revealed. Lies are apparently the only way support can be generated for their platform.
When you have no moral authority, when you do not have facts on your side, when your party is bereft of anything good or decent, then yes you spew lies, damned lies, and innuendo. Your communist fellow-travelers in the enemy ministry of propaganda (aka the MSM) will carry your water all for the cause, and for the destruction fo everyone who stands against this agenda for the destruction of America and all that is good and decent in the world.
Right-wingers aren’t perfect, but then, we are not the ideology reponsible for the deaths of a quarter BILLION people in the last 100 years!!! …and that includes Hitler; he was in his own words a PROGRESSIVE SOCIALIST.
It’s to bad Trayvon’s mother can’t be sued for giving birth to and raising a piece of worthless crap thug.
Sabrina Fulton is running for political office in a mostly black community and has the backing of many high profile Democrats as well as the leading newspaper, The Miami Herald.
There is a lot of sympathy for Trayvon Martin, and people overlook that his own actions resulted in his death. He attacked an armed person, not knowing he was armed. He was straddling Zimmerman on the sidewalk, pounding his head into the concrete when he was shot.
The fact that Zimmerman is a short dumpy little man and Trayvon Martin was tall, athletic, and younger was never a part of the discussion, yet the “community” overlooks the imbalance, the disparity of size.
Samuel Colt made men equal, not the law.
I like how they have to throw out the “white supremacist” party line. Especially funny since Zimmerman is Hispanic. Or, as the media labeled him at the time, “white Hispanic”, because the racist line doesn’t work unless you have “white” in there.
Yeah, Trayvon would have been 25, and Zimmerman would have been dead. Thank God for Gun Violence
The Buttegieg tweet is heinous. White supremacy? Ridiculous. It truly reveals what an arrogant, pandering twit he is.
Leftist Democrats are the true racists. Party of slavery, Jim Crow, Segregation, Black Wall Street (look that up), the party of the KKK (look up 1924 klanbake, and check out the life of DEMORAT Sen. Bob Byrd, KKK Grand Dragon).
The Demonrat Party embraces communism and everything that is despicable and evil, including islam and hating Jews. Good God, what America needs is a Pinochet and a good thorough PURGE.
The reason buttgig grins when calling people racists is he walks around with a motorized strapon doin the buttgig!
If Treyvon Martin had been white, the media would have ignored the story. Since he was black and Zimmerman was white, they made their political hay. They treated Zimmerman like the criminal. That’s white privilege.
If TM was white, he probably wouldn’t have been confronted by GZ.
This should be obvious, but seems to be missed by many.
What you’re claiming is an absurdity. TM’s behavior was sketchy no matter what skin color.
Not to mention GZ is technically white with Hispanic. But I guess if you spin it so white supremacy was behind GZ it fits the propaganda. No doubt GZ would not have followed TM if he was white. I don’t know about you guys but if someone follows me down the street they better be prepared to deal with a legally armed citizen ready to defend himself. Personally I’m sick of seeing GZ in the news. He was acquitted years and years ago for a justifiable homicide in which he arguably could have avoided by not following a “suspicious person” down the block. This tells me this guy is running out of money since he wants to sue anybody for anything he can. His case was a second amendment win, but not a moral victory in my opinion.
So you’re both pretending that Martin’s behavior wasn’t suspicious because you put it in scare quotes, you were pretending he did anything other than what anyone should do, let alone someone who’s part of a Neighborhood Watch.
Idiotic statement(s).
When asked for a (race) description by the 9-1-1 operator, Zimmermane stated that he DID NOT KNOW.
ANYbody at that time of night walking next to houses would have been watched and, I guarantee that if Martin had been walking by YOUR house in such a manner that YOU would have wanted him to be checked out by someone that saw him there!
But, for making the effort to keep his neighborhood safe, Zimmerman was physically attacked and badly beaten by Martin and then was attacked in every other possible way by the media and the sheep that lap up their slop.
And, by people like you. Learn the actual facts about matters before spouting off and publicly displaying ignorance.
He should Ben Lujan to his law suit. He posted it on Face Book.
So i guess Warren would have been fine if Zimmerman had stabbed Martin as she only wants to end gun violence.
it is really too bad that trayvon martin didn’t have good parents that could instill honor and respect to others. instead he was a thug that liked to assault anyone that he came across that he knew he could beat up if he felt like trying to make him feel good about himself. as he sat on george zimmermans chest and pounded his head into the sidewalk he very likely could have killed mr. zimmerman. i think that he got what he deserved. i am sure that if zimmerman had been a more imposing figure martin would have been too cowardly to try to assault him.
To bad the media never bothered to show an actual picture of trayvon martin as a teenage boy versus the 10 or 12 year old child they portrayed him as ,the public consensus would be considerably different.
Exactly. The “teenage boy” that was 200+ lbs, and festooned with tattoos, and about 50% larger than Zimmerman.
They tried very hard to hide that pic, it but its still out there.
It’s interesting, no, actually disgusting, that people choose the side of Martin, for their own political gain attempts, while they ignore Zimmerman, who could have been the one that had no more birthdays, as a result of a person attacking him in the middle of the night, Lucky for Zimmerman, he was able to defend himself.
While your comment does hold merit one has to realize in all actuality Zimmerman could have avoided this whole incident by not following the “suspicious character” down the street. You say attacked in the middle of the night like Zimmerman was sitting around minding his own business and Treyvon comes along and attacks him. That’s totally disingenuous. It’s a fact George followed this teenager down the street when advised not to by the 911 dispatcher and not witnessing him commit any crime. They way this played out I wouldn’t want to be in a similar situation today as Zimmerman was back then because you will most certainly be convicted because of the initiation of the incident. You just can’t follow someone around because they look suspicious, unless you are a police officer. It’s not wise and it’s extremely dangerous. In the next couple of months I wouldn’t be surprised to see Zimmerman suing someone because they used a Kel-tec to defend themselves in a shooting. I mean this guy is always in the news for stupid shit
But avoiding all possible incidents means that we have the kind of societee he saw in such movies as Death Wish. Why you want society to be a crime ridden s–thole I have no idea. GZ, soon after several breakins in the neighborhood, saw someone acting suspiciously and called the police, followed the person for a brief period of time to try to get a good description to the dispatcher and then followed the dispatcher’s instructions to return to his vehicle. While doing that he was excuselessly assaulted by TM, Put at risk of his life and he did a one shot stop on the thug.
Jeremy J:
Again with the “walking down the street minding his own business’ garbage. See my reply to you above; he was walking next to and around houses. Zimmerman was a memver of his Neighborhood Watch group. He followed to observe and to continue to report Martin’s location to the dispatcher. When Martin saw that he had been seen (and Zimmerman was no longer following, but had returned to his car) he came up behind Zimmerman and attacked him. He then won a stupid prize for playing a stupid thug game. The end.
B.S. What do you think ‘Neighborhood Watch’ means. You must know something the jury did not hear, such as, why did Martin attack Zimmerman? Did Zimmerman threaten to beat up this 6’3″, 200# man, to make him leave the neighborhood? Just curious.