ATLANTA — Lin Wood, one of the city’s highest-profile attorneys, is part of a legal team representing the Kentucky teen who was confronted by liberal activists during a recent Washington, D.C., demonstration. Nick Sandmann, a junior at Covington Catholic High School, was attending the annual March for Life rally on Jan. 18, 2019, when he had an encounter with Omaha tribe elder Nathan Phillips, who was attending the Indigenous Peoples March at the Lincoln Memorial on the same day.
Sandmann was wearing a red “MAGA” cap, and Sandmann was photographed and filmed while he was smiling at Phillips. The encounter made immediate national headlines, as Sandmann was instantly portrayed by many national and social media outlets and pundits as acting smug and racist while Phillips sang and played a drum. “I am being called every name in the book, including a racist, and I will not stand for this mob-like character assassination of my family’s name,” Sandmann wrote a few days afterward, adding that he and his parents had received death threats since video of the confrontation emerged.
However, over the next several days, more videos surfaced that indicated Sandmann and his group, as well as Phillips, were being harassed by a third group affiliated with the Black Hebrew Israelite movement.
READ MORE: Teen In Confrontation With Native American Man: I Didn’t Provoke
AND: More Information Surfaces About MAGA Hat Wearing Student
Now, Sandmann has filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Washington Post, and Wood is one of several attorneys representing the youth. According to the Fort Mitchell, Kentucky-based law firm of Hemmer DeFrank Wessels, Wood and attorney Todd McMurtry filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in the eastern district of Kentucky.
“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,” the lawsuit said. “The Post wrongfully targeted and bullied Nicholas because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ souvenir cap … when he was unexpectedly and suddenly confronted by Nathan Phillips, a known Native American activist, who beat a drum and sang loudly within inches of his face. 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.
“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,” the suit said. “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.”
Read the lawsuit here.
News of the lawsuit drew a swift Tweet of support from President Trump himself:
Wood has more than 40 years of experience as a trial lawyer who has extensive experience in First Amendment/defamation litigation. He was the lead attorney for the late Richard Jewell when Jewell was connected in the 1996 bombing of Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, and has also represented national conservative commentator Herman Cain, Dr. Phil McGraw, Howard K. Stern, and John and the late Patsy Ramsey and their son relating to the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado.
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Photo screenshot via YouTube
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