Devin Nunes suffers another defeat for a meritless lawsuit. It comes as no surprise

To no great surprise, but welcome nonetheless, the Virginia Supreme Court has denied a defamation lawsuit brought by former Rep. Devin Nunes against a fellow Republican.

Nunes, the Republican from Tulare who was one of the senior-most members of the GOP in the House until his resignation in December, sued a Republican strategist named Liz Mair and The Fresno Bee over a story the newspaper published in 2018. He sought $150 million from Mair in the case that was filed in Virginia’s Albemarle County Circuit Court.

The story described an employee’s lawsuit against Alpha Omega Winery, a business in which Nunes holds a limited partnership. The employee in the story claimed she was asked to work at a charity event on a yacht where the guests appeared to use drugs and hire prostitutes, which made the employee uncomfortable.

Nunes claimed Mair conspired to spread defamatory information about him through the story. But the lower court judge said Nunes failed to show that Mair conspired against him or defamed him.

The high court said the same thing.

“Upon review of the record in this case and consideration of the argument submitted in support of and in opposition to the granting of an appeal, the Court is of the opinion there is no reversible error in the judgment complained of. Accordingly, the Court refuses the petition for appeal,” the clerk, Muriel-Theresa Pitney, wrote in the decision obtained by The Bee.

Opinion

Another lawsuit Nunes filed against Mair was dismissed by a judge in a different Virginia county last summer. In that case, the judge found that Nunes did not exactly describe the words Mair used to allegedly defame him, that any such statements by her were not defamatory, and that he could not show she acted with malice.

Nunes’ suit against The Bee was dropped in 2020 when the newspaper’s parent company filed for bankruptcy, a process from which it has since emerged.

Getting to the truth

If this was baseball, Nunes would have some strike outs on his batting record.

But these have been serious allegations leveled by Nunes. He has tried to use the lawsuits to bully his way to an outcome that would intimidate anyone from crossing him in the future.

The allegations, however, have always lacked merit, and it is good to see the courts saying so.

“I thank the Court for upholding the First Amendment and my — and all Americans’ — rights of free speech,” Mair wrote in a statement to The Bee.

“I hope that this judgment will dissuade other government and political figures from attempting to use litigation as a cudgel to stifle free speech. This lawsuit did not succeed in silencing me, and nor should lawsuits like it be allowed to silence other Americans exercising their God-given rights to free speech especially where they do so in an effort to hold their government accountable.”

Today Nunes is the head of the social media enterprise just launched by former President Donald Trump. Designed to be a conservative alternative to Twitter, it’s name is Truth Social. The irony is obvious.

Nunes’ lawsuits have lacked anything resembling truth and honesty. Now that Nunes is in the media, however, maybe he will take a more accurate view of what constitutes defamation, libel and truth.