Covington Catholic Nick Sandmann student settles libel suit against Washington Post over his confrontation with Native American activist

The Kentucky high school student recorded in a tense, face-to-face standoff with a Native American activist at the Lincoln Memorial last year has settled his libel lawsuit against the Washington Post.

In a Friday filing signed by lawyers from both sides, Nicholas Sandmann agreed his lawsuit against the newspaper should be “dismissed with prejudice, with each side to bear its own costs.”

Sandmann said in a Twitter post Friday that he had “settled” with the newspaper.

“We are pleased that we have been able to reach a mutually agreeable resolution of the remaining claims in this lawsuit,” Post spokeswoman Kristine Coratti Kelly said in a statement to the Daily News.

Neither side disclosed terms of the settlement, and the Post admitted no wrongdoing.

“Nicholas Sandmann agreed to settle with the Post because the Post was quick to publish the whole truth — through its follow-up coverage and editor’s notes. The terms of the settlement are confidential,” Sandmann’s lawyer, Todd McMurtry, said in his own statement.

Sandmann still has lawsuits pending against ABC, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, Gannett and Rolling Stone, McMurtry said.

Sandmann was a 16-year-old student at Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky when he attended the January 2019 March for Life event in Washington D.C. on a school trip.

Viral video showing him wearing a Make America Great Again souvenir hat and standing about a foot from Omaha Nation elder Nathan Phillips as the Native American activist steadily beat a drum thrust him into the national spotlight and created a social media firestorm.

Sandmann sued the Washington Post in federal court in February 2019, saying its coverage of the Jan. 18 incident negligently included false statements that he accosted Phillips.

The original complaint asked for $50 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages.

The Washington Post fought the legal action, and the judge said in an opinion last year that the newspaper was not liable for publishing Phillips statements that he felt “blocked” by the students and unable to “retreat.”

Sandmann asked the court to reconsider the ruling, and the case was still pending before the dismissal paperwork filed Friday.

He previously settled similar claims against CNN after suing the network as well.