A prominent civil rights attorney deleted his viral tweet that attacked a female New York City hospital worker hours after her lawyer threatened defamation lawsuits in a Fox News segment against those who defamed her.
Ben Crump, who has been a lead attorney in several police brutality cases, tweeted a viral video with more than 4 million views of a verbal altercation between a pregnant New York City physician assistant and multiple young Black men before deleting it hours later after the segment aired and went viral on Twitter.
‘This is unacceptable!’ Crump captioned the tweet with the video. ‘A white woman was caught on camera attempting to STEAL a Citi Bike from a young Black man in NYC. She grossly tried to weaponize her tears to paint this man as a threat. This is EXACTLY the type of behavior that has endangered so many Black men in the past!’
There was no follow-up tweet with a correction or an apology.
Sarah Comrie, a physician assistant at Bellevue Hospital, was put on leave after the video sparked outrage. Her attorney, Justin Marino, said Comrie is six months pregnant and had just finished a 12-hour shift prior to the viral footage.
‘She’s been called a racist,’ Marino told Fox News on Friday. ‘She’s been called a thief. There are reasons defamation laws exist, and we plan to pursue that.’
Crump deleted his tweet hours after the Fox News segment. Marino said Comrie had to go ‘in hiding’ after the video went viral.
The men in the video with Comrie said they had paid to use the bike, despite her lawyer saying that receipts show she purchased it.
‘Around that time these individuals were claiming that that was their bike,’ Marino said, ‘someone pushed the bike while she was on it, back into the docking station so it locked again.’
Marino said he was hired because Comrie feared she may lose her job.
Crump did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on whether he plans to apologize for his tweet.