March 2, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Nicholas Sandmann, the Catholic teenager falsely accused by the mainstream media of harassing a Native American protester at the 2019 March for Life, will file new lawsuits against five additional media companies, according to a report by Fox 19.
Last month, CNN settled a $250 million lawsuit that Sandmann had brought against them, and a number of other suits against individuals and media giants remain pending, including a $275 million suit against NBCUniversal and a $250 million suit against The Washington Post.
In addition to these, Sandmann’s attorneys last week reportedly submitted a status report with the U.S. District Court in Covington, Kentucky, stating that they intend to file complaints against Gannett, ABC, CBS, The New York Times and Rolling Stone before March 9.
“All of the future defendants listed above have published or republished statements made by Nathan Phillips and others that Nicholas blocked or otherwise restricted Phillips’ free movement and would not allow Phillips to retreat at the National Mall on January 18, 2019. Nicholas reserves his right to file complaints in this Court or any other court against any other potential defendant not listed above, subject to the applicable statute of limitations,” the report reads.
Immediately after last year’s March for Life in Washington, D.C., the press erupted with claims that a video showed boys from a Catholic school in Kentucky harassing Phillips, a Native American activist, outside the Lincoln Memorial.
But additional extended video and firsthand accounts soon revealed that Phillips was the one who waded into the group waiting for its bus and decided to beat a drum inches from Sandmann’s face, while the boys had merely performed school cheers in hopes of drowning out racist taunts from members of the Black Hebrew Israelites fringe group.
As additional video came to light, many journalists and other public figures quickly deleted their snap condemnations of the students, and some either tried to keep the original narrative alive or refused to unequivocally retract or apologize for their initial claims, leading to various lawsuits on behalf of the boys.
Sandmann’s legal team stresses that the dollar amounts are not sought for the teen’s sake but to deter the press from smearing others in the future.
Attorneys Robert Barnes and Kevin Murphy have also filed defamation suits on behalf of eight other Covington students, targeting Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Deb Haaland, CNN’s Ana Navarro, The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman, ABC News’ Matthew Dowd, ex-CNN personalities Kathy Griffin and Reza Aslan, Kentucky entrepreneur Adam Edelen, Princeton University’s Kevin Kruse, left-wing activist Shaun King, Mother Jones editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery, and Rewire editor-in-chief Jodi Jacobson.
In January, Sandmann posted pictures of himself back at this year’s March for Life, tweeting, “I will never pass on an opportunity to March for Life!” President Donald Trump later thanked Sandmann on Twitter for the positive review the pro-life teen gave his speech at the 47th annual March for Life.