Mother of George Floyd’s daughter sends cease-and-desist letter to Kanye

Roxie Washington slams Kanye West for spreading misinformation about Floyd's death during his "Drink Champs" interview. 

The mother of George Floyd’s daughter has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Kanye West for spreading misinformation about his death.

According to The Independent, Roxie Washington, the mother of Gianna Floyd, has filed a $250 million lawsuit against West. Lawyers claimed the rapper made “false statements” about Floyd’s death to promote his brands and generate marketing value and revenue for himself and his associates.

“The interests of the child are priority,” said Attorney Nuru Witherspoon of The Witherspoon Law Group, according to The Independent. “George Floyd’s daughter is being traumatized by Kanye West’s comments, and he’s creating an unsafe and unhealthy environment for her.”

Gianna Floyd Sues Kanye West
Roxie Washington holds Gianna Floyd, the daughter of George Floyd, as they attend the funeral service for Floyd at The Fountain of Praise church Tuesday, June 9, 2020, in Houston. Washington has sent a cease-and-desist letter to rapper Kanye West for making “false statements” about Floyd’s death. (Photo: David J. Phillip/AP, Pool)

In an interview on Revolt TV’s “Drink Champs” podcast Saturday, West asserted that Floyd died from a fentanyl overdose. He claimed former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin “wasn’t even on his neck like that.” 

The conversation centered on Candace Owens’ documentary “The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of BLM.”

“I watched the George Floyd documentary that Candace Owens put out,” West said, theGrio previously reported. “One of the things that his two roommates said was they want a tall guy like me, and the day that he died, he said a prayer for eight minutes. They hit him with the fentanyl. If you look, the guy’s knee wasn’t even on his neck like that.”

According to theGrio, Revolt TV pulled Saturday’s “Drink Champs” episode, and N.O.R.E, the podcast’s co-host, has apologized to the general public and Floyd’s family. During an appearance Monday on “The Breakfast Club,” N.O.R.E. said he felt he had failed his people by failing to confront West when he made the Floyd-related remarks and several other inappropriate comments on the show.

“I want to apologize to the George Floyd family … I want to apologize to anyone who was hurt by someone saying something on my platform. … I do not want my people to think that I did not step up at the time, but if you watch the whole 3 hour and 38-minute interview, I represent for George Floyd and Black people five, six, seven times,” N.O.R.E. said, theGrio noted.

Floyd, a Black man, choked to death in May 2020 while in the custody of Minneapolis police. Bystander footage of the incident showed Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes.

Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison in June 2021 after a jury found him guilty of second and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for Floyd’s death. He was sentenced to 21 years in July for violating Floyd’s civil rights.

Kanye West
Kanye West appears at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills in Feb. 2020. Ye is now at the center of a $250 million lawsuit filed by Roxie Washington, the mother of George Floyd’s daughter. (Photo: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

According to The Independent, testimony given during the Chauvin trial by Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Andrew Baker determined that while Floyd’s heart condition and usage of fentanyl were both contributing factors, they were not the primary cause of his death.

Attorneys are now saying he took advantage of Floyd’s death and his family’s suffering by spreading “malicious falsehoods” about him.

“Kanye’s comments are a repugnant attempt to discount George Floyd’s life,” said attorney Pat D. Dixon III, The Independent reported, “and to profit from his inhumane death.”

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