Shaun King Threatens To Sue Black Activist Clarissa Brooks Over Deleted Tweet

Writer and civil rights activist Shaun King is suing black activist Clarissa Brooks for falsely accusing him of fraud.

In a statement on Twitter, Brooks, who is black and queer, said Jan. 7 she tweeted a question to King on the basis of limited information she had about him raising money for Cyntoia Brown, an African-American woman who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a Nashville real estate agent, Johnny Michael Allen, who bought her and planned on using her as a sex slave. Her sentence was later reduced.

After Brooks learnt of King suing people for tweeting about him, she deleted her tweet questioning him. On Wednesday, she received an email from King about the deleted tweet, and his attorneys Benjamin Crump and Lee Merritt were also copied on the email. It threatened legal action if she didn’t apologize publicly, delete the tweet and respond to King’s satisfaction. She said she wouldn’t apologize since she had already deleted the tweet.

Brooks also said if King or his team bothered to actually look, they would find the tweet was deleted and any concerns about “damage to his reputation” could have been taken up with her in a civil manner. Saying she wasn’t a malicious person, she did not appreciate being accused of trying to destroy anyone.

After she posted her statement on Twitter, a number of people came to support her, and some also claimed he plagiarized their work and called it his own. Another Twitter user spoke of how she too received a similar letter from King, and that Brooks was being targeted for abuse.

On his part, King posted a screenshot of Brooks’ tweet with the words “Another false claim retracted.” He also wrote about how he asked each of the people who made public allegations against him to either delete the tweets or make corrections, but everyone refused, prompting King to call his lawyers. He added he had never raised money for Brown and had nothing to do with the case.

People jumped to defend King after this, claiming Brooks had no proof King had raised money for Brown or stolen any of it. They wanted King to sue Brooks for defaming him and damaging his reputation. They also asked Brooks for proof or her sources for making the claims.

This isn’t the first time King was accused of fraud or stealing money from the funds he claimed to raise. An article by the Daily Beast questioned what happened to the $500,000 King apparently raised on behalf of families “affected by police violence or systemic racism.” Everyone involved wanted to know what happened to all that money and how much of it was actually received by its intended beneficiaries.

In 2015, he was called out for shutting down an organizing plan he put together but did not fulfill. The directors of his plan were concerned about where the donation money they raised went as he hadn’t clarified what happened with the plan or even what he was going to do with it in the future. King did come up with a statement a few days after this blew up, blaming a lot of people who were disappointed in him.

On Twitter, King also said he and his legal team would be fighting back against all the fabricated claims against him.