Nicholas Sandmann reaches private settlement with NBC over $275M lawsuit after network made it look like he’d committed a ‘hate crime’ in face-off with Native American man
- Kentucky high school student Nicholas Sandmann announced via Twitter that he reached a settlement in his $275M lawsuit against NBC on Friday
- He claimed in a 2019 lawsuit that the network’s reporting when he was shown next to a Native American man ‘created a false narrative’
- Sandmann said the network ‘portrayed the “confrontation” as a “hate crime” committed by Nicholas’
- In January 2019, the Covington Catholic High School student, then 16, attended a March for Life event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC
- Sandmann, while donning a pro-Trump red MAGA hat, was approached by Nettive Americana elder Nathan Phillips
- The teen was recorded grinning as Phillips chanted in the white teenager’s face
- The clip immediately skyrocketed to the forefront of media reports, which claimed that the incident was racially charged
Kentucky high school student Nicholas Sandmann revealed that he reached a settlement with NBC on Friday following the network’s coverage of a controversial confrontation he had with a Native American man in 2019.
‘At this time I would like to release that NBC and I have reached a settlement. The terms are confidential,’ Sandmann tweeted on Friday afternoon after reportedly suing the network for defaming him.
The lawsuit settlement with NBC was Sandmann’s third with a major news network since 2019. The teen’s legal team also sued The Washington Post for $250 million and CNN for $275 million.
Court records show that The New York Times, CBS, ABC, Rolling Stone and Gannett also had suits filed against them.
The lawsuits stem from the portrayal of the then-16-year-old Sandmann as a racist after the MAGA-hat wearing teen was shown standing face-to-face with a Native American man on January 18, 2019.
The Covington Catholic High School student and thousands of other students and pro-life advocates attended a March for Life event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.
It was the 47th edition of the march, which protested the Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade ruling in 1973 that legalized abortion across America.
Sandmann, while donning the red pro-Trump hat, was approached by Native American elder Nathan Phillips, a counter-protester attending the Indigenous Peoples March.
The white teen was recorded grinning as Phillips beat a ceremonial drum and chanted his face. The clip immediately skyrocketed to the forefront of media reports, which claimed that the incident was racially charged.
The now-18-year-old has consistently maintained that the confrontation had nothing to do with race and demanded NBCUniversal pay a staggering $275 million.
‘NBCUniversal created a false narrative by portraying the “confrontation” as a “hate crime” committed by Nicholas,’ the suit read.
It also added that the teen was an ‘easy target for NBCUniversal to advance its anti-Trump agenda because he was a 16-year-old white, Catholic student who had attended the Right to Life March that day and was wearing a MAGA cap at the time of the incident which he had purchased earlier in the day as a souvenir.’
The lawsuit claimed NBC ‘unleashed its vast corporate wealth, influence, and power against Nicholas to falsely attack him despite the fact that at the time, he was a 16-year-old high school student.’
In a DailyMail.com column last month, Sandmann likened the event and its fallout to that of Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted on all counts after shooting three men – killing two – during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
