Erika Kirk filed $40M defamation lawsuit against ABC and ‘The View’?

A rumor that circulated online in September 2025 claimed Erika Kirk, the widow of late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, filed a $40 million defamation lawsuit against ABC and “The View.” According to the posts about this matter, Kirk said, “The things they said about my husband were shameful and disgusting.”

Charlie Kirk, 31, was fatally shot Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem during his “The American Comeback Tour.” Prosecutors have since charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson with multiple crimes, including aggravated murder, in the killing of the Turning Point USA co-founder.

In one example of the rumor spreading online, on Sept. 17, an X user posted (archived), “Erika Kirk has filed a 40 Million dollar lawsuit against ABC.” The post received nearly 4 million views. A different X post (archived) had more than 1.5 million views. Other users shared this claim on Facebook, Instagram, KnowYourMeme.com (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived). We also noted the rumor’s popularity on U.S. President Donald Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social.

(@nysmba/Truth Social)

Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo and Google found no evidence of Kirk filing a $40 million defamation lawsuit involving ABC and “The View,” or making any such quoted statements.

Rather, the rumor originated with America’s Last Line of Defense — the name of a Facebook page and also the name of the page’s network, comprised of Facebook pages and websites publishing content labeled as parody and satire.

The original post (archived) featuring the fabricated story about Erika Kirk and the $40 million lawsuit displayed a small label reading, “Nothing on this page is real.” The same disclaimer also appears in the page’s bio.

(America’s Last Line of Defense/Facebook)

Some users selected the rumor as material for misleading articles generated with artificial-intelligence tools. One Facebook page posting (archived) the claim shared an external link to a blog article. That article displayed signs of someone generating its content with an AI tool. For example, the story featured a final paragraph written in the same cautious, forward-thinking way AI tools attempt to wrap up stories in a neat bow.

(Jacinta Speaks For Me/Facebook)

The fictional story began spreading just one day before ABC’s decision to suspend talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel’s show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

We previously reported the facts regarding Kimmel’s suspension, including his comments mentioning Kirk, as well as a rumor claiming Coca-Coca dropped Kimmel from an unspecified deal.

More about America’s Last Line of Defense

The America’s Last Line of Defense Facebook page’s “details” tab on its “about” page reads, “We are here to provide you with information you can use to continue being as informed as a conservative feels comfortable with. Please don’t use our page in conjunction with Google or the news, it will only serve to confuse you further.”

Dunning-Kruger-Times.com, a website under the umbrella of the America’s Last Line of Defense network, also displays a disclaimer on its “About Us” page, labeling the content as “parody, satire and tomfoolery,” along with a joke about Snopes reporting on made-up claims.

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources calling their output humorous or satirical.

Sources