MAGA Podcaster Benny Johnson Sued For Defamation For Calling ICE Protestors ‘Terrorists’

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MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson is being sued for defamation by two ICE protesters who claimed his videos viewed by millions of people portrayed them as criminals and “left-wing terrorists.”

The lawsuit was filed Friday on behalf of Harvard data scientist Kyle Frankovich and contract court reporter Maureen Foody, as a way to hold to account people who “serve as a mouthpiece for the government,” according to one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

The plaintiffs said they were peacefully protesting the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz in a “free speech” zone outside the Broadview ICE facility in Broadview, IL, last October when they were detained by ICE. That’s when Johnson showed up with then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.

According to the complaint, “Mr. Johnson filmed Plaintiffs lined up on the street with their hands bound behind their backs, while Mr. Johnson narrated a purported accurate firsthand eyewitness account of Plaintiffs’ actions that day.”

Johnson refers to the protesters as “left-wing terrorists arrested for attacking police officers and ICE officers.”

“All of this was false, which Mr. Johnson knew,” the complaint said.

Johnson is seen on video taunting the protesters and at one point saying, “These are exactly the kind of people that we want to be pissing off … It’s your tears that keep us going.'”

The lawsuit described Johnson’s video content as “political combat dressed up as news.”

According to MS NOW, the lawsuit “appears to be the first defamation suit related to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown filed against a member of the administration’s unofficial team of MAGA influencers, a corps of creators who amplify the government’s framing of left-wing protesters as dangerous agitators in exchange for access that draws online audiences and shapes the conservative news cycle.”

Johnson is a former conservative writer for BuzzFeed who was fired for plagiarism. He went on to create his own MAGA podcast that reaches millions of viewers on social media.

Johnson didn’t immediately respond to Mediate’s request for comment.

The plaintiffs are asking for “damages in excess of $75,000, as well as interest, reasonable attorneys’ fees, and costs, as allowed by law,” as well as punitive damages.

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