Former Navy SEAL who killed Osama Bin Laden sues podcasters after they made controversial claim
Topics: US News, Military, Podcast, Terrorism, Conspiracy Theories
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Featured Image Credit: Robert O'Neill/Facebook
Topics: US News, Military, Podcast, Terrorism, Conspiracy Theories
A former Navy SEAL who fatally gunned down Osama Bin Laden is suing two podcasters for a hefty sum after they made a controversial allegation.
Robert O'Neill, a seasoned veteran in the ultra-elite special operations force, shot and killed the al-Qaeda leader, who was responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, on May 2, 2011.
The order was signed off by then President Barack Obama at the time and promptly leaked to the American public through various sources, including professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson on X.
While O'Neill from SEAL Team Six was lauded as one, if not the sole killer of Bin Laden, Antihero Broadcast podcasters Tyler Hoover and Brent Tucker have apparently shared conspiracy theories about the high-profile slaying.
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According to a new lawsuit filed in Westchester County Supreme Court on Monday (November 10), the pair have made repeated claims that O'Neill lied about the assassination, launching what the veteran describes as an unfair crusade against him.
The podcasters, both military veterans from Florida, first started their supposed smear campaign in 2023 in a bit to get clicks on their YouTube channel, as per the court documents.
During an August 9 episode that year, Tucker said: "Besides the Rob O’Neill who didn’t kill bin Laden," before repeating the allegation as being 'the worst-kept secret in all of special ops'.
"I am not going to say, 'Oh, yeah, I was on the mission.' I'd be as big a liar as Rob O'Neill.
"I worked with a lot of those guys, still friends with some of them," Tucker continued, "And you'll never meet one where you go, 'Hey, you know Rob O'Neill?' And they go, 'Oh yeah, he's a great guy, he killed Bin Laden.' They won't do it."
The former Delta Force vet said military personnel are 'very professional about it' and claimed he wishes the community would 'come out more publicly'.
Another episode on their channel, which currently has 121,000 subscribers at the time of writing, was simply titled: "Rob O'Neill: The Web of Lies."
In April 2024, Hoover also accused O'Neill of changing his story about whether his bullets were the ones to wipe out the terrorist plotter.
Claiming the SEAL went from 'saying he was the one that killed Osama Bin Laden' to 'saying his team killed and that he shot Bin Laden'.
Tucker followed up, stating: "You [O'Neill] were just the last guy to put a round in Bin Laden."
Yet according to the lawsuit, O'Neill's account of being personally responsible for landing the killing blows was corroborated by Operation Neptune Spear leader, retired Admr. William H. McRaven.
Speaking to The New York Post, O'Neill, who is suing two podcasters for $25 million, said: "The story that I’ve been truthful with the entire time is that I had one [other] guy [on the mission] in front of me.
"He went one direction at the top of the stairs to confront what he thought was a suicide bomber. I turned the other way, and Osama bin Laden was standing there, and so I shot him three times.
"I killed Osama bin Laden."
He concluded: "What [Tucker and Hoover] are saying is not true at all."
The defamation suit, which cites causing him 'psychological and physiological harm', accused the podcasters of having 'failed to perform even basic due diligence'.
O'Neill also expressed disappointment that the duo had apparently targeted a fellow vet.
"The vet-on-vet thing has gotten a little bit out of control, and I would like to have it stop," O’Neill added.
Meanwhile, Tucker told the outlet: "The lawsuit will go nowhere. It's just for show."