A Los Angeles attorney who is representing students and families from Covington Christian High School in the wake of controversy following events at the Lincoln Memorial last week said Wednesday people who have posted derogatory comments about students and the school have 48 hours to retract their statements or they will face legal action.
"Everybody now is on 48-hour notice so by Friday, everybody needs to retract and correct any false statements they have issued about these kids," attorney Robert Barnes, who said he's offering his services for free, told Fox News' "Fox and Friends."
That would include "any major member of the media," Barnes said. "That includes anybody with a substantial social media platform. If you have said anything false about these kids, they are willing to extend to you a 48-hour time period of grace, consistent with their Christian faith, for you through confessions to get redemption and retract and correct and apologize."
Several people have already retracted their statements, but others haven't he said, targeting in particular Maggie Haberman of The New York Times as the "leading reporter for the leading newspaper in the country" and saying she has not backed down.
The boys from the Kentucky school have come under fire after an edited video purported to show several of them confronting Native American activist Nathan Phillips last Friday.
Barnes said that many people who have posted "false statements" and threats about the students could face lawsuits for libel, and because the boys are private citizens and in many cases minors, malice does not need to be proven.
He added that he expects to start filing lawsuits next week, and the amount of damages can be determined by a jury.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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