Lawyers for 16-year-old Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky high school junior who faced off with Omaha Nation elder Nathan Phillips on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial last month, have filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Washington Post, one of many newspapers to report on viral video of the incident.
"This is only the beginning," said the attorneys, Lin Wood and Todd McMurtry, on their firm's website, noting that it was the "first lawsuit" on Sandmann's behalf.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Kentucky, Reuters reported, and it states that the sum _ which is for "compensatory and punitive damages" _ is what Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos paid to buy the newspaper.
Video of the youth standing and apparently smirking at Phillips, an indigenous activist and elder who approached him singing and playing a drum, went viral in January as multiple forces collided after the Right to Life March, which the teen had attended, and the Indigenous People's March, which Phillips had been a part of.
