Federal judge dismisses Devin Nunes’ first lawsuit against The Washington Post
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has dismissed California Rep. Devin Nunes’ first lawsuit against The Washington Post, saying Nunes’ complaints about a Post article did not constitute defamation.
Nunes, R-Tulare, first sued The Post over an article it published in December 2019. The article said Nunes had informed President Donald Trump about a briefing given to members of the House Intelligence Committee that said Russia preferred that Trump win the 2020 presidential election.
Nunes sued The Post shortly after the article was published claiming defamation and an alleged conspiracy with congressional Democrats. On Christmas Eve, D.C. District Court Judge Amit P. Mehta dismissed the entirety of Nunes’ lawsuit, saying he’d failed to specify any actual defamation.
Essentially, Mehta said in his decision that since Nunes did not dispute that he told Trump about the briefing, he was actually accusing The Post of defamation by implication. But The Post article did not rise to that level — and even if it had, Nunes as a public figure would have to show that The Post was acting maliciously in publishing the information, and he had not.
“Even if the court were to treat (Nunes’) claims as straightforward defamation claims, the Post argues that (the defamation charge) should be dismissed for an independent reason: The Complaint does not plausibly allege that (The Post) acted with ‘actual malice,’” Mehta’s opinion states. “The court agrees.”
Mehta also denied Nunes’ lawyer’s attempts to amend the lawsuit to add new charges. Adding new charges to the lawsuit would have meant the case continued, and The Post’s lawyers would have had to file another motion to dismiss the new charge. Nunes’ lawyer, Steven Biss, has made the same move in other lawsuits on Nunes’ behalf.
Nunes has filed a total of nine lawsuits in the past two years, most alleging defamation against him by the media, political operatives and anonymous people online. Judges have dismissed lawsuits against Twitter, the owner of the magazine Esquire and Republican political strategist Liz Mair. Nunes has either filed amended complaints or appealed in each of those cases.
Nunes has voluntarily withdrawn two lawsuits: One against one of his constituents who called him a “fake farmer” and another against McClatchy, the owner of the largest newspaper in his district, The Fresno Bee.
Other lawsuits — including one against CNN, a second one against The Washington Post and another against a former constituent of his who he alleges is harassing him anonymously online — have dismissal motions pending.
This story was originally published December 28, 2020 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Federal judge dismisses Devin Nunes’ first lawsuit against The Washington Post."
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