If Nolan Wells‘ so-called friends think Rev. Al Sharpton is going to just roll over, apologize, and dole out retractions, Sharpton says they should think again.

He issued a statement Tuesday, slamming the boys’ impending defamation lawsuit as “meritless,” explaining he’ll “neither be silenced nor retract statements he did not make.”

Sharpton said … “This is not going to distract us from the question that brought us here: ‘What happened to Nolan Wells?’ His parents buried their 18-year-old son without knowing how or why he died. They asked me to stand with them, and I will continue to stand with them until they get the answers they deserve.”

As you know, Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour are making good on their litigation threats … their lawyer, Tyler Cox, filed an intent to sue letter saying they’ll be coming after the reverend for defamation.

In the response, Sharpton’s attorneys explained that he wasn’t inserting himself into Nolan’s mysterious death, but was asked to participate in the conversation around it.

They laid out plain and simple what the boys want from Sharpton, saying … “It asks Reverend Sharpton to apologize to three young men for having asked why an eighteen-year-old died. It asks him to retract questions that Nolan’s own mother raised on national television four days before he repeated them. It asks him to delete a prayer vigil.”

The attorneys argued that, for defamation to apply, “it requires a defamatory statement” … saying the intent to sue didn’t include one.

Sharpton’s legal team added that they’re prepared to sue Warren, Jax and Morgan’s attorneys right back if they were involved in pushing the defamation accusations against him.