January 6 protester says 'incredibly famous' Alec Baldwin used platform to attack her Gold Star family

• A January 6 protester says Alec Baldwin used his platform to attack her Gold Star family.
• Baldwin posted online about a fallen Marine's sister, who protested in DC on Jan. 6, 2021.

A January 6 protester suing Alec Baldwin over posting about the "attack on the Capitol" says the "incredibly famous man" should have known the harm he would cause because of the fallout from when his wife "pretended to be Spanish."

The family of Marine Lance Corporal Rylee J. McCollum is suing Baldwin in US District Court in Manhattan for $25 million alleging that he sicced his 2.5 million Instagram followers on them when he figured out the Marine's sister protested the election results near the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

"The McCollum Plaintiffs were viciously attacked by Baldwin and his followers just four months after their husband, brother, and hero was killed by a terrorist," a lawyer for the family said in a response to the actor's motion to dismiss the case. "Baldwin not only knew what the consequences of his actions would be, he directly experienced them himself prior to this incident."

Hilaria Baldwin left instagram for more than a month last year after accusations from fans that she was falsely claiming to be from Spain and use a Spanish accent. Born Hillary Thomas in Boston, she gave interviews and made TV appearances seeming to fabricate her accent and to identify as being born in Spain on numerous occasions.

Alec Baldwin first interacted with the family of McCollum after he was killed in an attack on the Kabul airport as US troops withdrew from Afghanistan.

Baldwin had donated $5,000 to the Marine's sister, Roice McCollum, to be passed on to his fiance Jiennah.

On January 3, 2022, Roice posted a picture she had taken at the Capitol riot to her Instagram account to mark the one-year anniversary, and Baldwin lashed out online, the lawsuit says.

He reached out to confirm Roice was the same woman he sent $5,000 to in honor of her dead brother, according to the lawsuit.

He then reposted Roice's post to his own Instagram account to express his dismay.

Baldwin wrote a private message to Roice, reading: "Your activities resulted in the unlawful destruction of government property, the death of a law enforcement officer, an assault on the certification of the presidential election. I reposted your photo. Good luck," according to the lawsuit.

Balwin's attorney asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that Baldwin's comments are protected by the Constitution, as he was just expressing the widely held political opinion that participating in that protest was an act of "insurrection." Secondly, he says, the family hasn't demonstrated how they were harmed by the post.

"This case is not about whether Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum is an American hero. He clearly is. It is not about whether the McCollum family has sacrificed for our country. They clearly have," attorney Luke Nikas wrote. "Instead, this case presents two settled legal issues."

In his response, the family's attorney, Dennis C. Postiglione, says Roice was in DC for the protest on January 6, but did not participate in the riot.

He says Baldwin's post is defamatory because it accuses her of being part of a criminal group of "insurrectionists" and says her actions resulted in "the death of a law enforcement officer."

"Defendant is correct that this matter is not about the heroism of Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum or his family's sacrifice," Postiglione wrote. "Rather, this case is about an incredibly wealthy, incredibly famous man who used his fame, notoriety, and platform of 2.4 million Instagram followers to attack the grieving widow and sisters of a deceased United States Marine who now seeks to avoid responsibility for the harm he inflicted."

Death threats and fear

Roice, her sister Cheyenne, and Jiennah — who make up the three plaintiffs in the lawsuit — say in the suit that shortly after Baldwin posted about Roice they started receiving "hostile, aggressive, hateful messages from Baldwin's followers," including "death threats."

"Get raped and die...Your brother got what he deserved," one of the messages read, according to the lawsuit.

When a neighbor learned of Roice's attendence in DC, she turned her in to authorities, according to the suit.

Roice was interviewed by the FBI after the event and was cleared of any wrongdoing. She was never detained, arrested, accused of or charged with any crime," the lawsuit states.

Roice, Cheyenne, and Jienneh McCollum say the unwanted exposure from Baldwin left them "fearful for their lives" and led to headaches, nausea, sleeplessness, severe anxiety, and severe mental distress.

Baldwin, as a reasonable person, should have been able to forsee the "social media onslaught of hatred and bile that ensued" as a result in his conduct, Postiglione wrote.