The Washington Post has ended its legal battle with Nick Sandmann, a Kentucky teenager who sued the outlet for $250 million over its coverage of a 2019 viral video.
Sandmann's attorney and a spokesperson for the Post confirmed the parties had settled out of court, but did not disclose the details of the agreement.
"Nicholas Sandmann agreed to settle with the Post because the Post was quick to publish the whole truth—through its follow-up coverage and editor's notes," Sandmann's lawyer, Todd McMurtry, said in an email to CNN. "The terms of the settlement are confidential."
Sandman celebrated the news via Twitter on Friday, which just so happened to be his 18th birthday.
Sandmann was at the center of controversy last year over a viral video that captured his interaction with Omaha tribe elder Nathan Phillips. The incident occurred during the Indigenous Peoples March at the Lincoln Memorial; Sandmann was at the site with his Covington Catholic High School classmates, who were in D.C. for the annual Right to Life March. The initial video showed Sandmann in a pro-Trump MAGA hat as he stood close to Phillips, staring him in the eye. Outlets framed the incident as a racially charged "confrontation," but Sandmann denied taunting the elderly man, and insisted he was trying to "defuse the situation" by "remaining motionless and calm." Subsequent footage provided more context to the situation, as it showed Covington students being accosted by another group of demonstrators.
Sandmann's legal team criticized outlets for running with a story that painted an inaccurate picture of their client: "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 lawsuit read.
Sandmann previously settled a defamation suit with CNN. He's also sued ABC News, CBS News, the New York Times, Gannett, and Rolling Stone.
