Attorneys representing the father of the youngest Astroworld Festival victim have called on a Houston court to extend a gag order to include rapper Travis Scott.
In documents filed in court Friday (March 11) obtained by Rolling Stone, Treston Blount, father of 9-year-old Ezra Blount, argued that a publicity gag order already in place for the massive legal matter should be enforced on the rapper himself or be scrapped altogether.
The filing comes after Travis announced the Project HEAL initiative on Tuesday (March 8) –– a $5 million philanthropic endeavor that partially seeks to address "safety challenges at large-scale events" –– which lawyers for the young victim's family say could potentially sway a jury to view Travis positively.
Travis' lawyers pushed back and argued that such a move would infringe upon his First Amendment rights.
"If defendant Scott's First Amendment concerns are genuine and legally supportably," Treston Blount's filing says, then the court should "rescind the publicity order so that the playing field is level."
Young Ezra Blount died after being crushed during a crowd surge at the fatal festival back in November. His grandmother, Tericia Blount, told Rolling Stone, Travis' initiative is a "PR stunt" created to "sway the jurors before they're even assembled."
The 30-year-old rapper is listed as one of the primary defendants in the more than 380 lawsuits seeking billions in damages filed by victims and others injured at the festival.