CNN’s Scott Jennings Hit With $72.5M Suit By Hasan Piker Over “Manipulated” Lynching Misquote

In a blistering response to Scott Jennings allegedly using “a false, fabricated, and manipulated video” claiming Hasan Piker wants to bring back lynching of Black people, the left-wing streamer wants to take the CNN MAGA talking head to the cleaners for $72.5 million.

“The accusation was especially calculated to provoke outrage because it invoked one of the most shameful chapters in American history,” the 38-page complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in DC states. “Mr. Jennings did not merely suggest that Mr. Piker held objectionable political views. He falsely told Black Americans that Mr. Piker wanted them lynched for exercising their right to vote. He used the history of racial terror as the premise for a political attack built on views Mr. Piker never expressed.”

Take a look at the still CNN paid Jennings in action here. Remember, please, the language he uses refers to one of the most evil aspects of America’s history.

Abdul El-Sayed’s best pal and campaign partner says the USA should resume lynchings against black people.

Listen for yourself and understand what the socialists have in store for the black community pic.twitter.com/N3ntbIHefw

— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) August 12, 2026

Pointing out that former Mitch McConnell aide Jennings traffics in “political controversy” for listeners and advertising, Piker’s Meier Watkins Phillips Pusch legal team spotlight the defendant on his August 11 podcast ‘falsely told his listeners that Mr. Piker had a ‘plan of returning our country to lynchings …then he falsely told his social media followers that Mr. Piker says the USA should resume lynchings against black people.'”

With the fiercely fought midterms just a week away, and Piker supported candidates like Michigan Senate contender Abdul El-Sayed moving ahead in the polls, the defamation action reflects the very different sense of reality that has come to bring a constant wrecking ball of hatefulness to the body politic.

Still, nothing says FAFO like prying cold hard cash out of an enemy’s bank account – no matter if you are MAGA, DSA or something in-between.

To that, Piker wants Jennings, who was and is again openly angling for Donald Trump to award him the once again open White House press secretary gig, to feel some pain for his “financial, professional, and political incentives to publish sensational accusations against Mr. Piker.” Specifically, after unsuccessfully attempting to get Jennings in late August to cop to the misquote and retract it, Piker, in his three-count lawsuit, is looking for “compensatory damages in an amount not less than $27,500,000.” He also seeks “punitive damages in the amount of $45,000,000,” plus fees and interest for “the reputational, professional, economic, and emotional injuries” Piker says he’s suffered.

In a move sure to harden ideological underpinnings and supporters of two provocative pundits in our divided America, Piker points out the edited and apparently fake clips came from a two year old segment where the influential Twitch star was actually mocking racism, not advocating for it — and Jennings must have known it.

“The distinction matters,” today’s complaint notes. “Mr. Jennings was free to criticize Mr. Piker, to condemn his political positions, or to argue that his commentary was offensive,” it continues “Mr. Jennings was also free to play Mr. Piker’s actual words, and provide his own commentary on what Mr. Piker actually said. Mr. Jennings was not free to do what he did: knowingly attribute to Mr. Piker statements that Mr. Piker never made, and then present those invented statements as evidence that Mr. Piker supports the racially motivated murder of Black Americans.”

A regular at the table on Abby Phillip’s primetime CNN show, Jennings is nowhere to be seen tonight.