CNN settles lawsuit with Covington student Nick Sandmann
Sandmann to file lawsuits against 'as many as 13' others in viral video controversy; reaction on 'The Five.'
CNN's chief media correspondent Brian Stelter may have landed himself in hot water, according to the attorney of Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann.
Last week, Sandmann announced that The Washington Post settled the $250 million defamation lawsuit he filed over its botched coverage of a viral confrontation with a Native American elder who had portrayed the Kentucky teen as the aggressor. This followed the multimillion dollar settlement agreement CNN reached with the teenager back in January.
However, Sandmann's attorney, Lin Wood, spotted a retweet from Stelter of a tweet written by attorney Mark Zaid, who speculated about how much money the teen walked away with from the settlement.
"Those with zero legal experience (as far as I can tell) should not be conjecturing on lawsuits they know nothing about. What kind of journalism is that?" Zaid asked. "I've litigated defamation cases. [Sandmann] was undoubtedly paid nuisance value settlement & nothing more."
Wood accused the "Reliable Sources" host of breaching his network's own confidentiality agreement with his client.
"This retweet by @brianstelter may have cost him his job at @CNN. It is called breach of confidentiality agreement. Brian Stelter is a liar. I know how to deal with liars," Wood tweeted with a screenshot of Stelter's retweet.
Sandmann knocked the media guru, tweeting "Brian Stelter just can’t learn some basic lessons over at CNN."
"I can’t decide if it’s worse to be Brian Stelter or believe Brian Stelter. He was never in any court hearing or meeting I was. So why does he act like he knows anything?" Sandmann added.
CNN analyst Asha Rangappa appeared to agree with Zaid as well.
"I’d guess $25K to go away," Rangappa wrote.
Responding to Rangappa's tweet, Wood wrote, "Heads are going to roll at CNN or @N1ckSandmann is going to filing another lawsuit & reveal truth."
Wood leveled a similar charge against Washington Post reporter Dan Zak, who suggested on Friday that the Post settled "for a small amount... in order to avoid a more expensive trial," later adding that it's the "American way."
Zak has since deleted the tweet, but he doubled down on the assertion, writing, "I delete about 30 percent of my tweets within 15 minutes. All are deleted within four months via Tweet Delete! Except really old tweets, which Tweet Delete doesn’t reach. But I stand by this theory! It’s the American way."
A spokesperson for The Washington Post told Fox News, "Dan’s tweet was taken down because it had no basis in fact. Dan has no knowledge about the agreement."
CNN and Lin Wood did not immediately respond to Fox News' requests for comment.
CNN SETTLES NICK SANDMANN DEFAMATION LAWSUIT IN COVINGTON CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL CONTROVERSY
On Friday, Sandmann touted his victory against The Washington Post on Twitter.
"On 2/19/19, I filed $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. Today, I turned 18 & WaPo settled my lawsuit. Thanks to @ToddMcMurtry & @LLinWood for their advocacy. Thanks to my family & millions of you who have stood your ground by supporting me. I still have more to do," Sandmann wrote.
Sandmann offered a not-so-subtle warning to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
"We have settled with WAPO and CNN. The fight isn’t over. 2 down. 6 to go. Don’t hold your breath @jack," he tweeted.
Wood similarly wrote, "For our present to @N1ckSandmann to celebrate his 18th Birthday, @ToddMcMurtry & I gave Nicholas the gift of justice from . . . THE WASHINGTON POST #FightBack."
A spokesperson for The Washington Post told Fox News, "We are pleased that we have been able to reach a mutually agreeable resolution of the remaining claims in this lawsuit."
CNN'S BRIAN STELTER IGNORES ABC NEWS' JEFFREY EPSTEIN SCANDAL ON 'RELIABLE SOURCES' MEDIA SHOW
In March 2019, Sandmann's attorneys filed a suit against CNN for its coverage of the incident before all the facts had surfaced. The teen was seeking a whopping $800 million in damages from CNN, NBC and the Post.
Attorney Todd McMurtry previously told Fox News that lawsuits against “as many as 13 other defendants" would be filed.
Among them: ABC, CBS, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, NPR, Slate, The Hill and Gannett, which owns the Cincinnati Enquirer, as well as miscellaneous other small outfits, according to McMurtry.
Sandmann was swept up in a controversy after a video clip depicted the "MAGA" hat-wearing student smiling at Nathan Phillips beating a drum and singing a chant as he was surrounded by Sandmann's peers, who all had joined in on the chant in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
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However, several mainstream media outlets, including CNN and The Washington Post, portrayed the incident with Sandmann and the other teens as being racially charged before additional footage later showed that a group of Black Hebrew Israelites had provoked the confrontation, slinging racial slurs at the students as they were waiting for their bus following the March For Life event.
The footage then showed Phillips, who was in town for the Indigenous Peoples March, approaching the students amid the rising tension between the two groups.