A judge has dismissed a $25 million lawsuit against Alec Baldwin brought by the family of a Marine killed in the 2021 suicide bombing in Kabul.
The actor was sued for libel by the Marine’s sister, Roice McCollum, 23, after he found out she was at the Jan. 6 riot and he called her an “insurgent.”
U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos said Baldwin’s comments, including calling Roice a “rioter,” came in private messages, while others were protected by the First Amendment, according to NBC.
Ramos said he had given the family a Sept. 12 deadline to file a revised complaint.
This is the second time their lawsuit has been dismissed, having previously been dismissed for being filed in the wrong state: Wyoming instead of New York.
Roice McCollum is suing Alec Baldwin for $25 million. Last year, he shamed her on Instagram for attending the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, saying he “didn’t know” she was a “rioter” when he gave her family $5,000 for her brother’s funeral. to help pay.
Rylee McCollum, 20, was one of 13 US servicemen killed in the August 26 terror attack at Kabul’s Abbey Gate airport
The lawsuit came about after 65-year-old Baldwin donated $5,000 through their gofundme in August 2021 to the family of Corporal Rylee J McCollum, one of 12 servicemen killed in the Kabul bombing.
In the documents, Roice shared some of the beatings she suffered online after Baldwin denounced her involvement in the Capitol riot some eight months earlier.
The actor was unaware of her presence at the riot when he made the donation.
In the comment section of a photo on Roice’s Instagram, Baldwin wrote, “Are you the same woman I sent the $ for your sister’s husband who was killed during the exit from Afghanistan?”
She had posted a carousel of three photos she had taken last year while attending the riot, which did not show her face. One of them showed another woman wearing a MAGA hat.
He then started bombarding her with private Instagram messages, telling her to “own it,” and later posted her Instagram account to his own 2.4 million followers and told her, “Good luck.”
In their private messages, he told her, “When I sent the $ for your late brother, out of true respect for his services to this country, I didn’t know you were a January 6 rioter,” he wrote to her.
She replied that she had committed no crime and had already spoken to the FBI.
On January 3, 2022, Roice posted a series of photos from the January 6 riot, which she took the previous year. She posted them on her Instagram page, along with the caption “Throwback.” The photo above is not of her, but of another woman present
Baldwin responded below her message, asking if she was “the same woman” to whom he had previously donated family
Protesting is perfectly legal in the country and I have already spoken to the FBI. Thanks have a nice day!’ she said.
Baldwin, 64, replied, “I don’t think so. Your activities resulted in the unlawful destruction of government property, the death of a law enforcement officer, an attack on the certification of the presidential election.
“I reposted your picture. Good luck.’
Publicly, Baldwin said it was “ironic” that she was a rioter when her brother was killed fighting for the country.
He then replied to her name in the comments section of his own Instagram post, revealing her name to his 2.4 million followers.
Roice was inundated with abuse from trolls, some of whom told her that her brother, who was to become a father when he died, deserved to be killed.
Within 20 minutes of Baldwin’s post, Roice “began receiving hostile, aggressive, hateful messages from his followers,” the lawsuit said.
She posted one to her feed, which Baldwin said she found “disgusting,” but she claims he knew what he was doing with his original post.
Roice McCollum poses with President Trump in one of her Instagram posts
Rylee had always wanted to serve in the military. The family was among the most vocal in their criticism of President Biden and the disastrous planning that led to the Kabul airport attack.
Marine Corps wife Lance Rylee McCollum Jiennah McCollum also sues Baldwin
The Marines were trying to secure Abbey Gate at Kabul airport during the disastrous evacuation of US troops from Afghanistan when they were killed last August.
She insists that while she attended the riot she did not participate in rioting and was merely a protester.
“He falsely accused Roice of vandalizing government property, resulting in the death of a law enforcement officer,” the lawsuit said.
She is joined in her court case by her brother’s widow.
The McCollum family was among the most vocal in their criticism of Joe Biden and the disastrous withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan that led to the deaths of Rylee and 12 other servicemen.
They were destroyed by an ISIS-K bomber as they attempted to secure the Abbey Gate at Kabul Airport on August 26, 2021, as tens of thousands of frantic Afghan refugees and international citizens attempted to flee the country as the Taliban rampaged through.
In their lawsuit, the Marine’s sister and widow point to the fact that Baldwin’s fans are overwhelmingly Democratic and dislike President Trump — whom they support.
They say Baldwin fanned the flames of the political differences between the two camps with his comments on Instagram.