Deray Mckesson loses defamation suit against Jeanine Pirro over 2017 comments

The activist took the Fox host to court over suggesting that he incited violence against a police officer, but a judge disagreed that it was deliberate

Megan Sims

Mar 26, 2019

Though it seemed conservative Fox News Host Jeanine Pirro has not been having a good few weeks, things could be looking up now that she has successfully defended herself against defamation case filed against her by Baltimore activist DeRay Mckesson.

A New York judge handed down a decision Monday ruling that Mckesson had not proved the Fox & Friends host, who is currently on suspension actually defamed him in commentary during the show.

Mckesson and his activism has often been a topic of discussion, particularly on Fox, but when Pirro claimed Mckesson’s words incited violence against police, he claimed defamation.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the incident that sparked the suit took place on the Sept. 29, 2017, edition of Fox & Friends. On the program that morning, Pirro discussed what had occurred a year earlier in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where a man shot several police officers, killing three.

Pirro had also talked about another case where Mckesson and other demonstrators alleged their civil rights had been violated after they were arrested during a protest. The second case settled for $136,000. Pirro was left having to explain why Mckesson were victorious.

“The problem is when you have federal judges who make decisions based on politics — activist judges — and not on the facts,” said Pirro on the show. “You’ve got a police officer who was injured, he was injured at the direction of DeRay Mckesson. Deray Mckesson walks away with $100,000 for an organization that is amorphous. We got a problem in this country.”

Mckesson disputed the claim in a letter through his attorney to Pirro noting that he and 100 other people only received $500 in a civil suit against the Baton Rouge Police Department after an unlawful arrest and demanded that she retract her statement. The Reporter noted that after no response, Mckesson followed through on the suit.

During a hearing last year, New York Supreme Court Judge Robert Kalish noted Pirro’s “sloppy” language, saying, “you’d think she’d know better.” But in his decision on Monday, Kalish disagreed that her statement was defamatory adding.

“Moreover, although the statement that the plaintiff-officer ‘was injured at the direction of DeRay Mckesson’ may cause a reader to believe such if it is read in isolation, viewing the entire video sequence as a whole it is clear that Pirro is expressing her opinion that the plaintiff-officer should be allowed to pursue his civil complaint against Mckesson on the theory that Mckesson may be held liable for the violent events that occurred during a demonstration that he allegedly led considering the allegations of the plaintiff-officer.”

Pirro’s show has been off the air since March 9 following an Islamophobic comment she made about Muslim Congresswoman, Illhan Omar. She is expected to return on March 30.