Mon, Feb 22nd 2021 1:33pm —
Mike Masnick
As you may recall, Rep. Devin Nunes has spent the last few years suing all sorts of critics and journalists, in a vexatious bout of abusing the courts to try to stifle criticism. Most famously, Nunes sued a satirical cow on Twitter (that case is
still ongoing). But in December of 2019 he sued CNN. As we noted at the time -- despite a weird column by a media critic at the Washington Post saying that this case was "halfway decent" -- the case seemed like the dumbest Nunes' suit we'd seen so far.
The filing was more performative nonsense, which seemed much more focused on spewing utter rubbish rather than making real defamation arguments. For example, a key part of the defamation claim involved statements on CNN about Nunes' contacts with Lev Parnas, the former Rudy Giuliani henchman who was arrested as part of a plot to get information from Ukraine to embarrass Joe Biden. Nunes' lawsuit argued that CNN defamed him... by getting the date wrong as to when Nunes and Parnas communicated. But... even if the date is wrong, that's not defamation. The case, like most other Nunes' cases, was filed in state court in Virginia, but thankfully, it was kicked up to federal court in NY. Bizarrely, Nunes went on TV claiming that CNN would be so scared to face him in court that the company likely wouldn't show up, talking tough on Fox News about how he was going to have to "track them down" to "hold them accountable." In fact, Nunes' "bet" Sean Hannity that CNN would "run" from this lawsuit and "not show up in court."