Covington Catholic High School students Nicholas Sandmann announced Friday that he had settled a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post on his eighteenth birthday.
“On 2/19/19, I filed $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. Today, I turned 18 & WaPo settled my lawsuit. Thanks to @ToddMcMurtry & @LLinWood for their advocacy. Thanks to my family & millions of you who have stood your ground by supporting me. I still have more to do,” he tweeted.
Sandmann took legal action last year after Democrat activists and journalists defamed him as racist, after a bystander filmed a confrontation between him and Native American activist named Nathan Phillips.
The activist uploaded a short clip to her social media, which showed Sandmann smiling as Phillips beat a drum and sang in front of him, along with the caption: “The amount of disrespect…. TO THIS DAY.” She also uploaded it to YouTube, along with the caption: “Is this how we make America great ‘again’?”
The video then spread on social media, boosted by apparently fake accounts, Democrat activists, and mainstream media journalists. Sandmann’s face and name was broadcasted worldwide, and the student was demonized as a racist who had mocked a Native American elder. Some outlets, including the Washington Post, erroneously reported that Phillips was a Vietnam War veteran.
Later, a longer video clip emerged showing that it was Phillips who approached Sandman and his classmates, after they were harassed by another group of activists known as the Black Israelites, who shouted insults at them as they were waiting for their buses to arrive.
Sandmann’s settlement with the Washington Post comes after he settled a $250 million defamation lawsuit with CNN in January.
One of Sandmann’s attorneys, Lin Wood, confirmed that there were still defamation lawsuits against NBC News, ABC News, CBS News, Rolling Stone, Gannett, and the New York Times.
He also tweeted: “Footsteps of justice also approaching Jack & @Twitter,” though it was not clear what action Sandmann is taking against the social media platform.
A Breitbart News examination showed that apparent fake Twitter accounts helped spread the short clip of Sandmann’s confrontation with Phillips.
Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter or on Facebook.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.