Devin Nunes Announces Lawsuit Against CNN For Defamation and 'Reckless' False Story
House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member to sue network
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House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) has announced his plans to sue news network CNN over a report alleging an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani was willing to testify to Congress that he met with former Ukrainian prosecutor to find dirt on Joe Biden.
In March, Nunes sued Twitter and three of its users for $250 million in damages for defamation and “shadow-banning” of conservative opinions and benefiting Republican Party by selectively enforcing its terms of service.
“The attorney, Joseph A. Bondy, represents Lev Parnas, the recently indicted Soviet-born American who worked with Giuliani to push claims of Democratic corruption in Ukraine,” according to CNN.
“Bondy said that Parnas was told directly by the former Ukrainian official that he met last year in Vienna with Rep. Devin Nunes.”
“Mr. Parnas learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December,” Bondy told CNN.
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“Nunes had told Shokin of the urgent need to launch investigations into Burisma, Joe and Hunter Biden, and any purported Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.”
But CNN argues that Bondy informed them that both Nunes and Parnas initiated communication around the time of the Vienna trip and that Parnas managed to put Nunes in contact with Ukrainian officials in order to dig up dirt on 2020 hopeful Biden.
Nunes is also preparing the groundwork to sue The Daily Beast for a story alleging that numerous meetings with Ukrainian officials were et up with the help of Parnas.
Nunes exclusively told Breitbart News:
“These demonstrably false and scandalous stories published by the Daily Beast and CNN are the perfect example of defamation and reckless disregard for the truth.
Some political operative offered these fake stories to at least five different media outlets before finding someone irresponsible enough to publish them.
I look forward to prosecuting these cases, including the media outlets, as well as the sources of their fake stories, to the fullest extent of the law.
I intend to hold the Daily Beast and CNN accountable for their actions. They will find themselves in court soon after Thanksgiving.”
CNN claims they asked Nunes about his trip to Vienna, to which Nunes responded:
“I don’t talk to you in this lifetime or the next lifetime. At any time. On any question.”
CNN tries to question Rep. @DevinNunes (R-CA) who responds in the best possible manner.
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 24, 2018
Just say no to CNN. pic.twitter.com/oOb29SBM5M
“These demonstrably false and scandalous stories published by the Daily Beast and CNN are the perfect example of defamation and reckless disregard for the truth,” Nunes told Breitbart News late Friday night. #FakeNews#TruthMattershttps://t.co/TyhprtVBNr
— Sonja Harris (@SonjaHHarris) November 23, 2019
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CNN asked Nunes the same question about his trip on Thursday, and Nunes responded:
“To be perfectly clear, I don’t acknowledge any questions from you in this lifetime or the next lifetime. I don’t acknowledge any question from you ever.”
Nunes's noncommunication policy with CNN is widely known and is clearly evident in a clip from summer 2018.
Nunes's reason behind not answering to CNN was because the network has repeatedly made false claims about Republicans and publishing fake stories.
In 2017, CNN published a false story about the then-Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci, alleging that he was connected to a Russian investment fund.
But the story was later retracted after Scaramucci took immediate legal action against CNN.
In August, the former chairman of the Psychiatry Department at Duke University appeared on CNN, claiming President Trump was as bad as Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.
The Psychiatrist branded the president in the same categories at the worst dictators in the 20th century, suggesting his presidency might lead to even more deaths than they did.
Shelter famously failed to challenge the claim, and after facing backlash, gave an uncorroborated excuse for his not questioning the blatantly false statement.
CNN also lied about former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s lawyer, alleging Cohen would testify that Trump was aware in advance of the Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer - which was false.
“On July 27, 2018, CNN published a blockbuster story: that Michael Cohen was prepared to tell Robert Mueller that President Trump knew in advance about the Trump Tower meeting,” The Intercept reported.
“There were, however, two problems with this story: first, CNN got caught blatantly lying when its reporters claimed that ‘contacted by CNN, one of Cohen’s attorneys, Lanny Davis, declined to comment’ (in fact, Davis was one of CNN’s key sources, if not its only source, for this story), and second, numerous other outlets retracted the story after the source, Davis, admitted it was a lie. CNN, however, to this date has refused to do either.”
