CNN agreed to settle for an undisclosed amount in a $275 million defamation lawsuit filed by Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann during a hearing at the federal courthouse in Covington, Kentucky on Tuesday. Sandmann had sued the network over its sloppy and one-sided coverage of his January encounter with an elderly Native American activist in Washington DC.
Sandmann lawyer Todd McMurtry announced on Twitter that he and fellow attorney L. Lin Wood will now be turning their “attention” to NBC News, the Washington Post and “additional defendants to be named soon.”
I want to thank everyone for the many good wishes received today. Now, @LLinWood and I turn our attention to @NBCNews, @washingtonpost
and additional defendants to be named soon. #NickSandmann https://t.co/HeJ0TrwJ8q— Todd V. McMurtry (@ToddMcMurtry) January 7, 2020
Sandmann himself did a victory lap on Twitter:
Yes, We settled with CNN.
— Nick Sandmann (@N1ckSandmann) January 7, 2020
The lawsuits were filed after Sandmann and a number of other Covington Catholic High School students were smeared by multiple news outlets and personalities following an incident involving Nathan Phillips, a Native American who was participating in the Indigenous Peoples March. Sandmann and his classmates were in D.C. for the March For Life and were waiting for their bus to take them home to Kentucky when they were accosted by a black separatist fringe group known for making outrageous, racist, anti-gay statements, and Phillips who loudly banged his drum inches away from Sandmann’s face.
Thanks to the sloppy, one-sided reporting about the incident on the part of the agenda-driven media, the teens and their families became the subjects of threats and harassment from a hateful online outrage mob.
According to Fox 19, trial dates have not been set for Sandmann’s lawsuit against NBC Universal and the Washington Post.
The Washington Post suit is seeking $250 million and the NBC suit $275 million.
According to OANN’s Emerald Robinson, the rumor is CNN settled for $25 million.
CNN is rumored to have settled for $25 million with Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann.
And that's only the first lawsuit.
Sandmann's attorneys have told 53 more news outlets & individuals to "preserve documents."
2020 will be the year that "fake news" had to pay up.
— Emerald Robinson ✝️ (@EmeraldRobinson) January 7, 2020