The parents of a Covington Catholic high school student who became the face of an encounter between a group of teen Trump supporters and a Native American activist have sued the Washington Post for $250 million alleging defamation.
And President Trump is cheering the Kentucky teenager on.
“Go get them Nick,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday morning. “Fake News!”
“The Washington Post ignored basic journalistic standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump.” Covington student suing WAPO. Go get them Nick. Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2019
The lawsuit alleges that Covington high schooler Nick Sandmann was “targeted and bullied” by the Post because of his support for Trump. In footage of the encounter, Sandmann is the student who was seen smirking and staring inches away from Native American Nathan Phillips’s face while he performed a song during a protest at the National Mall. Sandmann and the other students were criticized for their behavior, which appeared to be mocking Phillips and other activists.
“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 complaint says.
A Washington Post spokeswoman told the newspaper it intended to “mount a vigorous defense” against the defamation allegations.
Sandmann’s legal team did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment.
Read the complaint below:
