The family of 16-year-old Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann is suing the Washington Post for $250 million, Reuters reports.
Sandmann, the Kentucky teen who was filmed facing off with Native American activist Nathan Phillips during the Indigenous Peoples March and coinciding anti-abortion March for Life at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., is claiming the publication engaged in defamation and “targeted and bullied” him.
The incident, which occurred in January of 2019, went viral on social media.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Kentucky. Ted and Julie, the parents of Sandmann, filed the suit on the teen's behalf. $250 million is the same amount billionaire Jeff Bezospurchased the Washington Post for back in 2013.
"In a span of three days in January of this year commencing on January 19, the Post engaged in a modern-day form of McCarthyism by competing with CNN and NBC, among others, to claim leadership of a mainstream and social media mob of bullies which attacked, vilified, and threatened Nicholas Sandmann, an innocent secondary school child," the suit reads, according to the Washington Post. "The Post ignored basic journalist standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented, biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump by impugning individuals perceived to be supporters of the President."
Kristine Coratti Kelly, the publication's Vice President for Communications, says that they "are reviewing a copy of the lawsuit." Kelly also said that they "plan to mount a vigorous defense."
