Covington Catholic High School student, Nick Sandmann is suing the Washington Post for $250 million in damages, claiming the newspaper wrote “false and defamatory” articles about him.
The lawsuit was filed in Kentucky federal court yesterday and accused the Post of targeting Sandmann through a “modern day form of McCarthyism” and “using its vast financial resources to enter the bully pulpit by publishing a series of false and defamatory print and online articles … to smear a young boy who was in its view an acceptable casualty in their war against the president.”
Sandmann’s attorneys Lin Wood and Todd McMurty wrote in the lawsuit that “The Post rushed to lead the mainstream media to assassinate Nicholas’ character and bully him” and the newspaper “[fanned] the flames of the social media mob into a mainstream media frenzy of false attacks and threats against Nicholas.”
Sandmann and his fellow students were wrongly accused of being disrespectful to Native American a protester while they attended the March for Life in Washington D.C. in January. However, a full video of the incident reveals that the students were taunted by protesters–most likely–for wearing pro-Trump MAGA hats. The extended version of the video also shows the Native American approaching the students.
Video also shows the students were harassed by a group of “Black Hebrew Israelites” who called the children products of incest, “peckerwoods” and “dusty ass crackers,” among other names.
Fox News writes that the lawsuit also alleges:
The Post “ignored the truth” about the incident and says the paper “falsely accused Nicholas of … ‘accost[ing]’ Phillips by ‘suddenly swarm[ing]’ him in a ‘threaten[ing]’ and ‘physically intimidat[ing]’ manner … ‘block[ing]’ Phillips path, refusing to allow Phillips ‘to retreat,’ ‘taunting the dispersing indigenous crowd,’ [and] chanting, ‘Build that wall,’ ‘Trump2020,’ or ‘Go back to Africa,’ and otherwise engaging in racist and improper conduct. …”Sandmann’s attorneys accuse The Post of publishing seven “false and defamatory” articles about the incident between Jan. 19 and 21 and claim the paper “knew and intended that its false and defamatory accusations would be republished by others, including media outlets and others on social media.”
UPDATE: President Trump has commented on the lawsuit.
On Twitter, the president wrote: ‘The Washington Post ignored basic journalistic standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump.’ Covington student suing WAPO. Go get them Nick. Fake News!”
“The Washington Post ignored basic journalistic standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump.” Covington student suing WAPO. Go get them Nick. Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2019
