Tennessee Republican sued over post falsely identifying Kansas man as Chiefs parade shooter and 'illegal Alien'

A Kansas man is suing Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., over social media posts that falsely identified him as an undocumented immigrant and one of the shooters in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade that turned deadly last month.

The lawsuit, filed by attorneys for Denton Loudermill Jr. in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, alleges that Loudermill sustained damages in excess of $75,000 as a result of a "false representation" of him appearing on the Tennessee Republican's personal X account.

“At no time was Plaintiff an ‘alien,’ an ‘illegal alien,’ nor a ‘shooter’ and the assertions to the contrary were false and were circulated widely among Defendant’s followers," the lawsuit states.

Burchett in February posted an image of Loudermill on X, identifying him as “one of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade shooters” and “an illegal Alien.”

According to the lawsuit, that post was live on Feb. 15 and reposted more than 21,000 times and had 7.2 million views by the morning of Feb. 18. Burchett then removed the post, indicating in a new one that he had misidentified Loudermill as an undocumented immigrant, while still suggesting that Loudermill was “one of the shooters.”

Citing Loudermill's mental distress and death threats he has received following the posts, the lawsuit seeks a trial by jury and damages for spreading falsehoods under a Kansas privacy law.

A spokesperson for Burchett did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.

An attorney for Loudermill declined to comment when asked whether they were seeking a specific dollar amount in damages.

Federal courts require cases seeking damages between people in different states, such as this one, to exceed $75,000. Loudermill is a resident of Olathe,