Nick Sandmann, the Kentucky teenager whose confrontation with a Native American activist went viral in January, is planning to sue CNN for a whopping $250 million over its coverage of the January clash between students and activists.
A lawyer for the Covington Catholic High School student announced Sandmann’s plans during an interview scheduled with Fox News Channel’s “Life, Liberty & Levin,” set to air on Sunday night.
Fox News published a preview of the interview with attorney L. Lin Wood on Saturday.
Wood told the conservative news network that CNN was “probably more vicious in its direct attacks on Nicholas than the Washington Post.”
Sandmann, a high school junior, also filed a lawsuit against the Post in February, which also seeks $250 million in damages. Wood noted in his Fox interview that CNN, a major cable news network, reaches more viewers than the Post does readers.
CNN “really went after Nicholas with the idea that he was part of a mob that was attacking the Black Hebrew Israelites, yelling racist slurs at the Black Hebrew Israelites. Totally false,” Wood said.
CNN did not immediately return HuffPost’s requests for comment.
In January, video showed Sandmann and a group of young students surrounding Native American activists Nathan Phillips, who was performing an American Indian Movement song in front of the Lincoln Memorial at the National Mall.
Video of Sandmann staring down Phillips quickly went viral, drawing immediate condemnation for the teen from both political parties.
After the incident, Phillips gave several interviews in which he claimed Sandmann and the other students swarmed him after he tried to prevent potential violence between the students and a group identified as Hebrew Israelites. Phillips told the Washington Post that Sandmann stood in his way as he looked for an exit route.
In a statement released by a public relations firm, Sandmann claimed Phillips had singled him out and insisted he was trying to defuse the mounting tension. He also said he felt as though Phillips was “attempting to provoke the teenagers.”
One day after Philipps standoff with Sandmann went viral, another video surfaced providing more context to the incident. In subsequent videos, members of a group identifying itself as the Black Hebrew Israelites can be seen shouting at the students.
Phillips told CNN that he was also trying to defuse the tension between the teens and the Hebrew Israelites. by playing his drum and chanting a healing prayer.
Sandmann’s lawsuit against the Washington Post seeks “legal redress for its negligent, reckless, and malicious attacks on Nicholas which caused permanent damage to his life and reputation.”
The suit also claims that the Post “bullied an innocent child with an absolute disregard for the pain and destruction its attacks would cause to his life.”
Sandmann’s lawsuit against CNN is expected to be filed on Monday or Tuesday, the teen’s lawyer told Fox News.