Covington High School student Nicholas Sandmann is suing CNN for $275 million, Reuters reports.
The suit claims the network made him the “face of an unruly mob” when he and a group of other students confronted Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist, at the Lincoln Memorial during a trip to attend the March for Life anti-abortion rally.
The filed complaint claims that CNN aired four segments that were “defamatory” as well as 16 articles that accused Sandmann and his classmates of “engaging in racist conduct.”
“The CNN accusations are totally and unequivocally false, and CNN would have known them to be untrue had it undertaken any reasonable efforts to verify their accuracy before publication,” the complaint claimed.
The teen’s school says there was no wrongdoing on the student’s end and places blame on an organization known as the Black Hebrew Israelites. That group, the school claims, directed offensive comments at the students that was followed by the Phillips approaching the group with his drum.
The Washington Post saw a similar suit filed last month for $250 million over their reporting of the incident.
CNN has declined to comment on the ongoing suit.
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