Actor George Clooney dished out some brutal advice for the prosecution of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the attorney for George Floyd’s family said on Wednesday’s episode of “The View.”
Lawyer Benjamin Crump recalled Clooney lamenting in an email that Chauvin’s defense lawyers are suggesting that drugs ― and not the 9 minutes and 29 seconds that Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck ― caused Floyd’s death in May 2020.
“He says, ‘Attorney Crump, you should tell them that if Derek Chauvin feels so confident in that, he should volunteer during his case to get down on the floor in that courtroom and let somebody come and put their knee on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds and be able to see if he can survive,’” Crump remembered Clooney writing to him.
“The experts will opine during this case that the average human being can go without oxygen from 30 seconds to 90 seconds — where George Floyd went without oxygen for over 429 seconds, and that’s why it was intentional what this officer did,” Crump added. “And I believe in my heart that he will be held criminally liable and it will hopefully set new precedents in America.”
Check out Crump’s comments from the 7-minute mark here:
A representative for Clooney confirmed the story to HuffPost.
The actor has been vocal about Floyd’s death, penning a scathing op-ed in June 2020 during Black Lives Matter protests that followed Floyd’s killing. Clooney declared racism in the United States “our pandemic.”
“It infects all of us, and in 400 years we’ve yet to find a vaccine,” Clooney wrote at the time. “It seems we’ve stopped even looking for one and we just try to treat the wound on an individual basis.”
Chauvin has pleaded not guilty to murder and manslaughter charges in the death of Floyd. The trial continues.
This article has been updated with confirmation from Clooney’s representative.