The Devin Nunes Defamation Juggernaut Runs Aground
As you sue, so shall ye reap.
Two years ago, California Congressman Devin Nunes wandered off from the House of Representatives to run Donald Trump’s media company. In that time he’s steered it to massive success … ish. In the most recent quarter, it reported losses of $16 million on $836,900 of earnings, and the stock is down 70 percent in the past six months.
But Nunes’s true gift is for litigation. Indeed, when it comes to filing garbage defamation suits, the man is second to none. It is his one, true calling. He sued CNN. He sued McClatchy. He sued NBC. He sued a Twitter cow. He’s even getting Trump Media into the action. And in the past week he has euthanized one suit against the Washington Post and attempted to resurrect another against Esquire.
The Post suit involved a November 2020 story by reporter Ellen Nakashima, and the gravamen of his complaint can be inferred from the correction which currently accompanies it:
New Report - Are Small Firms Achieving Their Legal Tech Goals?
Correction: As originally published, this article inaccurately attributed claims that the Obama administration spied on Trump Tower to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), rather than to President Trump. Nunes has stated that he did not believe there had been any wiretapping of Trump Tower. This article has also been updated to note that Nunes says an incident known as the “midnight run” took place during daylight hours.
He bailed out of that Uber during the day, and don’t you forget it!
Judge Carl Nichols dismissed the case in June, writing that “a reasonable jury could not conclude that the correction was materially false. After all, as Defendants correctly contend, the record demonstrates that Nunes’s public statements in March 2017 after the White House visit had ‘provided some credence to Trump’s concerns.’” After which Nunes promptly appealed to the DC Circuit.
It’s been going GREAT, as demonstrated by this letter from the Post‘s lawyer to the clerk.
Sponsored
New Report - Are Small Firms Achieving Their Legal Tech Goals?
The Ethical use of Generative AI
How To Maximize Productivity With Westlaw Precision With CoCounsel
Mitigating M&A Cyber Risk: Pre- & Post-Acquisition Due Diligence
Yesterday the parties stipulated to a dismissal in that case. Presumably this resolves the unpleasantness in the outstanding sealed motion.
But when God Trump closes a door, he opens a window … or tries to, anyway. And so Congressman Cowpoke hopes to get the Eighth Circuit to revive his lawsuit against Hearst for a story published in Esquire in 2018 by reporter Ryan Lizza entitled Devin Nunes’s Family Farm Is Hiding a Politically Explosive Secret. The piece noted that Nunes’s family upped sticks and left California years ago to run a dairy farm in Sibley, Iowa, where Lizza spent a pleasant week being tailed by various members of Nunes’s immediate family. And it noted that the dairy industry in Iowa relies heavily on the use of undocumented immigrants.
Nunes and his family both sued for defamation, seemingly unaware that filing a lawsuit means you have to go through discovery. And discovery proved pretty conclusively that the Nunes family farm did employ undocumented immigrants, which is why Judge C.J. Williams, a Trump appointee, dismissed the complaint in April of 2023. Indeed Nunes’s lawyer Jesse Binnall admitted as much in oral argument before the Eighth Circuit last week.
Courthouse News reports:
Sponsored
Mitigating M&A Cyber Risk: Pre- & Post-Acquisition Due Diligence
Attention Buyer: Not All Legal AI Models Are Created Equal
On Wednesday, U.S. Circuit Judge Bobby Shepherd, a George W. Bush appointee, asked Nunes’ attorney Jesse Binnall of the Binnall Law Group in Alexandria, Virginia, to confirm a statement in the court record: “There is no genuine dispute of material fact that it is substantially true that NuStar used undocumented labor.”
Binnall acknowledged the statement, but he added: “The phrase at issue is ‘knowingly.’ And why that’s so important is because there are federal laws that govern how you can ask somebody about their status. If a farm would have simply gone to people, based on the language they spoke, the color of their skin, anything else like that in trying to get more specific on whether or not they had legal status — they could have been sued. They could theoretically have been prosecuted. You cannot do that.”
U.S. Circuit Chief Judge Steven Colloton, also a George W. Bush appointee, asked Binnall to clarify the question around illegal hiring.
“The dispute,” Binnall replied, “is what NuStar knew and when they knew it.”
Truly, the man’s First Amendment jurisprudence is art.
Nunes v. WaPo [Circuit Docket via Court Listener]
Nunes v. WaPo [District Docket via Court Listener]
Nunes v. Lizza [District Docket via Court Listener]
Nunes v. Lizza [Circuit Docket via Court Listener]
Devin Nunes seeks revival of defamation case over Esquire article about his family farm [Courthouse News]
Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos substack and podcast.
