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:
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.
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:
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.