Today is Nick Sandmann’s 18th birthday and he celebrated by making an announcement about his lawsuit against the Washington Post.

Stay by your timelines…

— Nicholas Sandmann (@N1ckSandmann) July 24, 2020

On 2/19/19, I filed $250M defamation lawsuit against Washington Post. Today, I turned 18 & WaPo settled my lawsuit. Thanks to @ToddMcMurtry & @LLinWood for their advocacy. Thanks to my family & millions of you who have stood your ground by supporting me. I still have more to do.

— Nicholas Sandmann (@N1ckSandmann) July 24, 2020

Sandmann’s attorney Lin Wood predicted last night that he would receive a “present of JUSTICE” last night.

https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1286508471458902026

And this morning he clarified what that was.

https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1286676149989445638

Obviously the settlement here indicates that the Post has agreed to pay some amount of money, but neither Sandmann nor Wood are saying how much.

As mentioned above, Sandmann filed his $250 million lawsuit against the Post in February of 2019. In July of the same year, a federal judge dismissed that lawsuit saying that the Post’s coverage of the story was protected by the 1st Amendment even if the claims they reported weren’t accurate. That looked like the end of the line, not only for that lawsuit but for all of the lawsuits Sandmann had filed. However, last October the same judge partially reversed his decision after reviewing an amended complaint.

After reviewing an amended complaint, Judge William Bertelsman ordered Monday that the case could enter the discovery phase and hence a portion of the lawsuit against the newspaper could continue…

Bertelsman said in the order that he stands by his decision that 30 of the 33 statements Sandmann’s lawyers argued were libelous were not, but that “justice requires” further review of three of the statements.

“These three statements state that (Sandmann) ‘blocked’ Nathan Phillips and ‘would not allow him to retreat,’” the order reads.

At the time, attorney Lin Wood celebrated this reversal as a “huge win” for Sandmann’s case. And his co-counsel Todd McMurty tweeted that the decision, “bodes will for the NBC and CNN cases, as well.” He later deleted that, possibly because of the typo, but it’s clear what he meant. The fact that a federal judge had agreed part of the lawsuit should go forward against the Post was a warning to other organizations.

Perhaps influenced by that decision, CNN settled a similar defamation suit with Sandmann in January. Then as now no one would say exactly what CNN had agreed to pay. It seems that part of the settlement is an agreement by both sides not to share the details. So don’t expect to find out anytime soon how much the Post settlement was worth. But obviously, even if Sandmann is settling for 1 percent of the original figure, he’s already a very rich 18 year old.

Finally, both Sandmann and Lin Wood made clear they aren’t done yet.

We have settled with WAPO and CNN.

The fight isn’t over. 2 down. 6 to go.

Don’t hold your breath @jack.

— Nicholas Sandmann (@N1ckSandmann) July 24, 2020

The mention of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey seems like an indication of someone they might go after next. Attorney Lin Wood confirmed Twitter was on their list for a possible future lawsuit and also spelled out who the other six media organizations were:

https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1286697836910989313

The lawsuit against NBC was filed last year at the same time as the lawsuits against CNN and the Post. The other five lawsuits mentioned above were filed this March:

On Monday, Sandmann sued the ABC News, CBS News, the New York Times, Gannett and Rolling Stone.

Gannett is the parent company of The Enquirer…

$275 million from NBC
$250 million from the Washington Post
$195 million Gannett
$95 million from ABC News
$65 million from the New York Times
$60 million from CBS News
$35 million from Rolling Stone

Two have paid, let’s see what the other six decide to do now.