Daily Fact-Check: No Change in George Floyd’s Cause of Death, Despite Viral False Claims

Misinformation pushers have been making claims similar to Carlson’s since a website highlighted statements that were recently made public in an unrelated court case.

The website, called Alpha News, describes itself as an outlet focusing on Minnesota news that “mainstream media all too often refuses to report and routinely disregards.” It doesn’t disclose any kind of political affiliation, but the site was founded by Alex Kharam, who is the executive director of a nonprofit that “works to promote conservative ideals and free market principles.” The nonprofit had an associated political action committee that spent more than $250,000 since the 2016 election cycle to support conservative politicians in Minnesota, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.

The person who wrote the story with the highlighted quotes, Liz Collin, published a book in October 2022 titled, “They’re Lying: The Media, The Left, and The Death of George Floyd.”

In her Oct. 17 story, Collin cited depositions that were made public in a sex discrimination lawsuit that a former prosecutor had brought against the Hennepin County attorney who was in office at the time of Floyd’s death. The suit isn’t related to Chauvin’s case. But the prosecutor, Amy Sweasy, had worked on charging Chauvin early on, and some incidents in the county attorney’s office at the time came up in her deposition.

Sweasy was clear in her deposition that she agreed with the decision to charge Chauvin in the death of Floyd, although she disagreed with the degree to which he should be charged and she did not support the decision to charge the other three officers who had assisted in Floyd’s arrest. Two of those officers have since pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter, and the third was found guilty on the same charge in a bench trial.

In her letter resigning from the case in early June 2020, Sweasy wrote:

“When I wrote and signed the complaint against Derek Chauvin, I believed in the charges and that there was sufficient admissible evidence to prove the elements of those crimes beyond reasonable doubt at trial; I still do. Unfortunately, the decision to add additional charges against former Officer Chauvin and to bring charges against the other involved officers is, in my opinion, clearly contrary to Rule 3.8(a). For this reason, I have resigned from this case and will have no further part of it.

“What I am unable to do right now is prosecute three men for failing to act and speak up when they saw something going horribly wrong and then do the same by failing to speak up myself. Thank you.”

Sweasy’s original complaint had charged Chauvin with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The final complaintadded a third charge of second-degree murder, which is a higher level sometimes used for cases in which there was an intent to kill. A jury later found Chauvin guilty on all three charges.

None of this was included in Collin’s story. Instead, that story quoted from a section of the deposition in which Sweasy recounted a phone conversation she said she had with the medical examiner on the day he performed Floyd’s autopsy.

As Sweasy recalled in the deposition, “he told me that there were no medical findings that showed any injury to the vital structures of Mr. Floyd’s neck. There were no medical indications of asphyxia or strangulation. He said to me, ‘Amy, what happens when the actual evidence doesn’t match up with the public narrative that everyone’s already decided on?’ And then he said, ‘This is the kind of case that ends careers.’”

The issue of Floyd’s manner of death was not the subject of the deposition. Rather, lawyers were focused on who had mentioned the phrase about ending careers, since Sweasy is alleging that her former boss had threatened her career and failed to promote her. So, there was no further context or explanation in the deposition about Baker’s alleged statement to Sweasy.

As we explained, when he completed the final autopsy report, the medical examiner had determined that Floyd died of cardiac arrest due to the neck restraint carried out by police. He did not determine that Floyd died of asphyxia or strangulation, so there’s nothing new that has been revealed.

We reached out to Sweasy for further explanation, but, through her lawyers, she declined to comment. “Unfortunately, because the lawsuit is still pending, we cannot comment or explain testimony given,” her lawyer, Sonia Miller-Van Oort, told us in an email. “She may be able to provide clarifications to your questions in the future when the case is concluded.”

The county medical examiner’s office referred us to the county spokeswoman, Carolyn Marinan, when we asked about Sweasy’s statement. “Dr. Baker cannot comment on statements made by other people in their depositions. He stands by the autopsy report and his televised testimony,” Marinan said.

All that the deposition shows is that there was internal strife within the prosecutor’s office and disagreement about which charges to level against Chauvin, not whether he should be charged.

And nothing at all has changed about the medical findings regarding Floyd’s cause of death.