CNN, The New York Times and Sen. Elizabeth Warren were  a few of dozens of media outlets and politicians who received letters from lawyers representing Covington Catholic High School student, Nick Sandmann.

The legal team for the Kentucky teenager, who became the face of the controversy that erupted after a viral video alleged he had harassed a Native American man last month at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., sent the letters to more than 50 organizations, lawmakers and even celebrities in anticipation of a potential libel and defamation lawsuit, Fox News reported.

A 15-minute video which Sandmann’s lawyers claim shows “the truth” about what happened was also released.

“It’s an enormous pool of possible defendants,” attorney Todd McMurtry told Fox News on Monday, confirming that in addition to Warren, actors Alyssa Milano and Jim Carey as well as the Washington Post and the Diocese of Covington had received the letters, and others could be added to the list.

While many were quick to judge the teenager’s actions based on a portion of video which showed him standing in front of activist Nathan Phillips wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, other video began to surface revealing that the students actually were initially approached by Phillips and other Native American activists in addition to being harassed by so-called Black Hebrew Israelites.

Fox News reported:

[McMurty] told Fox News that not everyone who received the letter could be called to defend themselves in a court, but that they have basis to believe that they could be sued. He added the documents that should be preserved for any future litigation include any drafts of stories, emails between colleagues discussing the incident, and, for celebrities and individuals, any tweets or statements sent to the public.

The short video, posted on YouTube, purports to declare “The Truth in 15 Minutes.”

“Two 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,” the video narration said.

L. Lin Wood, part of Sandmann’s legal team and a nationally-recognized attorney in libel, defamation and the First Amendment, also tweeted about the video.

Some say a 15-minute video is too long to go viral. Will we allow incomplete 30-second video clips to be basis for agenda-driven false accusations & threats against a 16-year old student? Please share the full truth about what was done to Nick Sandmann. https://t.co/QGglyZwiIa

— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) February 2, 2019

“We want to change the conversation. We don’t want this to happen again,” McMurtry told the Cincinnati Inquirer. “We want to teach people a lesson.”

McMurtry also believes some of the false reports about the student “permanently stained (Nick’s) reputation.”

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

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Frieda Powers

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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