Wow! This week is starting off to be a great one for justice!
A federal judge just reopened the Covington Catholic School defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post over three flagged statements from the Washington Posts coverage last January when student Nicholas Sandmann encountered Nathan Phillips at the Lincoln memorial stairs.
The Washington Post and other news sources jumped to the gun to disparage the students. The full videos and more details came out later to tell the entire picture but it was too late for student Nicholas Sandmann who endured so much that he filed a defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post.
Today, the Washington Times is reporting that U.S. District Court Judge William Bertelsman agreed to permit discovery on three of 33 allegedly libelous statements in the Post’s coverage of the Jan. 18 incident pertaining to teenager Nicholas Sandmann. The Post has insisted that its reporting was fair and accurate.
All three flagged statements from the newspaper’s coverage refer to Omaha Nation elder Nathan Phillipsbeing blocked or impeded by Nicholas, a student at Covington Catholic High School, during their viral encounter at the Lincoln Memorial stairs.
“The Court will adhere to its previous rulings as they pertain to these statements except Statements 10, 11, and 33, to the extent that these three statements state that plaintiff ‘blocked’ Nathan Phillips and ‘would not allow him to retreat,’” said Judge Bertelsman in his Monday order.
“Suffice to say that the Court has given this matter careful review and concludes that ‘justice requires’ that discovery be had regarding these statements and their context. The Court will then consider them anew on summary judgment,” he said.
The lawyers for Sandmann called this a “huge victory.”
Robert Barnes tweeted:
“Let me thank Warren for removing our Covington case to federal court & giving us the chance to brief the issue. After the briefing, the judge also reconsidered & reopened the Sandmann case against the Post. Despite many big corporate media law firms against us, justice is coming.” – Robert Barnes
Sandmann has a powerful law firm behind him with L. Lin Wood who has many successful defamation cases under his belt.
Let’s hope justice is finally served for Nicholas Sandmann.
OUR PREVIOUS REPORT ON THE SANDMANN LAWSUIT:
16-year-old Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann went to Washington D.C. with a group of his classmates to march in defense of the unborn. There was no way he could have known, that the moment he placed President Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hat on his head, he would become the target of almost every leftist bully in America. Unhinged liberals on Twitter started the ball rolling, with misleading video clips and lies about who the victims were in an attack by the Black Hebrew Israelites and fake Vietnam veteran, Nathan Phillips. Irresponsible anti-Trump publications like the Washington Post and cable news shows like CNN grabbed the fake news story pushed by hateful liberals and used it to shamelessly smear an innocent 16-year-old boy without giving the truth about what really happened a second thought.
The left may have chosen the wrong boy to target. Nick Sandmann’s parents hired the high-powered attorney L. Lin Wood, of L. Lin Wood P.C., in Atlanta, GA to represent them in their case against multiple thugs who did everything in their power to destroy their son.
Here is a portion of the lawsuit from Hemmer, DeFrank and Wessels Attorneys at Law:
The Washington Post is first to be sued.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY
NORTHERN DIVISION
AT COVINGTON
NICHOLAS SANDMANN, by and through his parents and natural guardians,
TED SANDMANN and JULIE SANDMANN,
Plaintiffs,
v.
WP COMPANY LLC d/b/a THE
WASHINGTON POST,
Defendant.
PLAINTIFF’S COMPLAINT WITH JURY DEMAND
NOW COMES Nicholas Sandmann, by and through his parents and natural guardians, Ted Sandmann and Julie Sandmann, and by and through his counsel, states his Complaint against Defendant, WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post (“the Post”) as follows:
INTRODUCTION
1. The Post is a major American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. which is credited with inventing the term “McCarthyism” in an editorial cartoon published in 1950. Depicting buckets of tar, the cartoon made fun of then United States Senator Joseph McCarthy‘s “tarring” tactics of engaging in smear campaigns and character assassination against citizens whose political views made them targets of his accusations.
2. In a span of three (3) 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 (“Nicholas”), an innocent secondary school child.
3. The Post wrongfully targeted and bullied Nicholas because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a red “Make America Great Again” souvenir cap on a school field trip to the January 18 March for Life in Washington, D.C. when he was unexpectedly and suddenly confronted by Nathan Phillips (“Phillips”), a known Native American activist, who beat a drum and sang loudly within inches of his face (“the January 18 incident”).
4. Nicholas stood quietly and respectfully for several minutes after being targeted and bullied by Phillips and Nicholas’ body language remained non-aggressive and passive throughout the incident.
5. Nicholas is 16-years of age, is 5’9” in height and weighs 115 pounds.
6. The school field trip to the Nation’s capital was the first out-of-state trip Nicholas had ever taken without being with his family.
7. In targeting and bullying Nicholas by falsely accusing him of instigating the January 18 incident, the Post conveyed that Nicholas engaged in acts of racism by “swarming” Phillips, “blocking” his exit away from the students, and otherwise engaging in racist misconduct.
8. The Post ignored basic journalist standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented, biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump (“the President”) by impugning individuals perceived to be supporters of the President.
9. As a 16-year old secondary school student, Nicholas’ political beliefs are anything but established and entrenched in his young mind.
10. Nicholas has zero history of political activism or aggressiveness and did not exhibit any such conduct even when confronted with unbridled racist attacks by activist bullies at the National Mall.
11. The Post’s campaign to target Nicholas in furtherance of its political agenda was carried out by using its vast financial resources to enter the bully pulpit by publishing a series of false and defamatory print and online articles which effectively provided a worldwide megaphone to Phillips and other anti-Trump individuals and entities to smear a young boy who was in its view an acceptable casualty in their war against the President.
12. Unlike the Post’s abuse of the profession of journalism, Plaintiffs do not bring this lawsuit to use the judicial system to further a political agenda. This lawsuit is brought against the Post to seek legal redress for its negligent, reckless, and malicious attacks on Nicholas which caused permanent damage to his life and reputation.
13. The Post bullied an innocent child with an absolute disregard for the pain and destruction its attacks would cause to his life.
14. The Post proved itself to be a loud and aggressive bully with a bully pulpit.
15. In this country, our society is dedicated to the protection of children regardless of the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, or the cap they wear.
16. But the Post did not care about protecting Nicholas. To the contrary, the Post raced with a reckless disregard of the facts and truth because in this day and time there is a premium for being the first and loudest media bully.
17. The Post wanted to lead the charge against this child because he was a pawn in its political war against its political adversary – a war so disconnected and beyond the comprehension of Nicholas that it might as well have been science fiction.
18. The Post must be dealt with the same way every bully is dealt with and that is hold the bully fully accountable for its wrongdoing in a manner which effectively deters the bully from again bullying other children. In a civil lawsuit, punishment and deterrence is found in awarding money damages to the victim and target of the bully.
19. In order to fully compensate Nicholas for his damages and to punish, deter, and teach the Post a lesson it will never forget, this action seeks money damages in excess of Two Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars ($250,000,000.00) – the amount Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, paid in cash for the Post when his company, Nash Holdings, purchased the newspaper in 2013.
Go here to see the entire lawsuit.