Lawyers Representing Covington Catholic High School Student Nick Sandmann Send Letters to Over 50 Personalities and Organizations – Lawsuits a Possibility

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Feb 5, 2019

As we’ve covered over the last few weeks, multiple celebrities including Vincent D’Onofrio, Michael Rapaport, Alyssa Milano, and others took to social media to target students from Covington Catholic High School, who participated in the March for Life and were subsequently interrupted by Native American protestor Nathan Phillips. Phillips beat his drum in the face of one of the students.

Following the reactions by celebrities as well as media personalities, lawyer Robert Barnes volunteered to represent a number of the students and their families. He began by threatening these celebrities and media personalities with lawsuits. He spoke to Fox News noting, “the whole family gave everybody 48 hours to correct all of these statements. If they still refuse to do so it’s clearly negligent to keep false statements up.”

Now, lawyer Todd McMurtry, who is representing Nick Sandmann, confirmed to The Daily Caller that letters have been sent or will be sent “over the next couple of days” to CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Jim Carrey, Alyssa Milano, Bill Maher, and even Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren in what McMurtry calls a “significant and unique lawsuit” for libel and defamation. The Daily Caller indicates “the letters tell the media outlets and individuals named to preserve all documents or recorded material associated with the incident, including emails connected with reporting the event.”

Libel and defamation lawyer L. Lin Wood of Atlanta is working with McMurtry. L.Lin Wood has represented high profile clients such as the family of JonBenet Ramsey and Richard Jewell who was falsely accused of being the bomber at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996.

The Cincinnati Enquirer revealed the full list of more than 50 organizations that have been sent letters and it includes Warner Media, HBO, TMZ, The Guardian, the Diocese of Baltimore, and more.

  • The Washington Post
  • The New York Times
  • Cable News Network, Inc. (CNN)
  • The Guardian
  • National Public Radio
  • TMZ
  • Atlantic Media Inc.
  • Capitol Hill Publishing Corp.
  • Diocese of Covington
  • Diocese of Lexington
  • Archdiocese of Louisville
  • Diocese of Baltimore
  • Ana Cabrera
  • Sara Sidner
  • Erin Burnett
  • S.E. Cupp
  • Elliot C. McLaughlin
  • Amanda Watts
  • Emanuella Grinberg
  • Michelle Boorstein
  • Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
  • Antonio Olivo
  • Joe Heim
  • Michael E. Miller
  • Eli Rosenberg
  • Isaac Stanley-Becker
  • Kristine Phillips
  • Sarah Mervosh
  • Emily S. Rueb
  • Maggie Haberman
  • David Brooks
  • Shannon Doyne
  • Kurt Eichenwald
  • Andrea Mitchell
  • Savannah Guthrie
  • Joy Reid
  • Chuck Todd
  • Noah Berlatsky
  • Elisha Fieldstadt
  • Eun Kyung Kim
  • HBO
  • Bill Maher
  • Warner Media
  • Conde Nast
  • GQ
  • Heavy.com
  • The Hill
  • The Atlantic
  • Bustle.com
  • Ilhan Omar
  • Elizabeth Warren
  • Kathy Griffin
  • Alyssa Milano
  • Jim Carrey

McMurtry told The Enquirer, “We have a good faith basis to sue.” He does acknowledge there will be challenges indicating those on the list will “raise legal defenses and challenges that we’ll have to overcome, but that’s the way it goes.” He also indicated that they will be demanding retractions and apologies. He explained to Fox News that not all of the parties who received a letter would be called to defend themselves in a court. However, he does note they could be sued.

“We want to change the conversation. We don’t want this to happen again. We want to teach people a lesson,” McMurtry said. “There was a rush by the media to believe what it wanted to believe versus what actually happened,” he added.

“For the mob to just go tear apart a 16-year-old boy is inexcusable. He’ll never be able to get away from this.”

McMurtry indicates their next step is to have conversations and negotiations with the legal teams of the people and organizations they sent letters to. Following those conversations their is the possibility of filing lawsuits.

McMurtry told Fox News that at least one party has already responded to the letter. He did not indicate which one.

L. Lin Wodd also released a video titled Nick Sandmann: The Truth in 15 minutes. The video’s description reads:

“2 weeks ago, the mainstream media, politicians, church officials, commentators, & celebrities rushed to judgment to wrongfully condemn, threaten, disparage & vilify Nick Sandmann based solely on a few seconds of an out-of-context video clip. It only takes 15 minutes to learn the truth. Here it is.”

Back on the weekend of January 18th, a video went viral that purported to show students from Covington Catholic High School harassing and mocking a Native American Vietnam veteran by the name of Nathan Phillips.

The story hit all the keynotes for sensationalism, and it didn’t take long for it to spread like wildfire. The anger at the teens was so great that people in the entertainment industry wished for their deaths via woodchipper. Kathy Griffin, even took to Twitter to demand that the students get doxxed. That Tweet was later deleted.

But before the weekend was over, it became crystal clear that the story was much different than what was being portrayed by the media.

First, it turned out that no, the students didn’t march up to Nathan and his group. In fact, it was Nathan Phillps who walked up to the students.

As the story continued to fall apart, folks like HBO’s Bill Maher continued to push the narrative that the students were the agitators in the situation. He went on his HBO program, Real Time With Bill Maher, and used his opening monologue to go after Nick Sandmann. Calling the students things such as “little prick.”

It’s still very early in the process, but it looks like there will be quite a bit of bite behind the suit. We will continue to update on this story as it develops.

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