An attorney known for representing Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) was sanctioned and order to pay CNN over $21,000 in attorneys' fees on Tuesday. Nunes, who was not involved in the suit, is pictured during a hearing in Washington, D.C. on April 15, 2021. Al Drago/Getty.
While the original suit claimed that CNN made 20 false claims about Nunes, the amended version included only five alleged falsehoods. Bennett remained unconvinced.
The amended suit was dismissed "with prejudice" on March 31 after the judge determined that it did not make any new claims. "With prejudice" is a legal term that means the lawsuit cannot be filed again.
Newsweek reached out to Biss for comment. A lawsuit similar to the one involved in Tuesday's ruling was dismissed by a different judge in February. It had been brought against CNN by Nunes himself and sought over $435 million in damages. Nunes has also filed unsuccessful lawsuits against media outlets including Fresno Bee owner McClatchy, ...
Biss and Harvey were sanctioned and ordered to pay CNN $21,437 in attorneys' fees and another $52 in expenses. Nunes was directly involved in the suit.
The suit came after a November 2020 CNN report claiming that Parnas was prepared to testify that Nunes met with a former Ukrainian prosecutor as part of an effort to dig up "dirt" on then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. Harvey claimed that suggestions that he was involved in the alleged scheme were false and defamatory.
A federal judge in Maryland this week followed through on a previous warning to sanction a lawyer best known for representing Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) in a series of failed defamation lawsuits against media companies, saying the lawyer ’s latest case against CNN was “frivolous” in nature.
In the initial complaint, Harvey alleged that the defendants falsely accused him of participating in an effort to aid and abet the commission of criminal, unethical, and dishonest conduct. He sought punitive damages and an order prohibiting the defendants from continuing to repeat false claims on the basis that they constituted defamation and false light invasion of privacy.
Harvey and Biss initially argued that CNN made 20 defamatory statements, but later filed an amended complaint that narrowed that number down to five. However, Judge Bennet concluded that even the trimmed down complaint contained the same “manifest deficiencies” regarding the statements in question which lacked “defamatory meaning” and failed to “plausibly allege material falsity” and “actual malice.”
Biss was previously sanctioned by the Virginia State Bar and suspended from practicing law for one year in 2008 for “a deliberately wrongful act that reflects adversely on his fitness to practice law.”. Biss did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The original complaint — filed on behalf of Nunes’s senior aide Derek Harvey against CNN, former Rudy Giuliani business associate Lev Parnas, and Parnas’s attorney Joseph Bondy — stemmed from a November 2020 CNN report that said Parnas was prepared to provide Congress with testimony in connection with Donald Trump ’s first impeachment proceeding.
Biss did not immediately respond to a request for comment. If he provides a response, we will update this report.
Despite those concessions from the paper, Nunes has pressed on with his suit, prompting the hearing on Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee.
Biss said that made it sound as though Nunes was trying to cook up a fake story to back Trump. “ They’re basically accusing [Nunes] of being some type of broadsheet for the president,” Biss said.
Gamse dismissed the comparison, noting that the Palin case was highly unusual, in part because Bennet is the brother of Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) “There’s all sorts of personal allegations that were not here,” Gamse said.
The California Republican accuses The Washington Post of intentionally lying about his actions as President Donald Trump was mired in controversy about Russia. Lawyers for Rep. Devin Nunes and The Washington Post squared off in federal court on Tuesday over a suit Nunes filed last year accusing the newspaper of intentionally lying about his actions ...
Nichols issued no immediate ruling on the Post ’s motion to dismiss the case but said he would seek to do so soon.
Indeed, after the suit was filed, the newspaper corrected the article to note that the now-ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee maintains that his trip took place “during daylight hours” and that he has said he does not believe Trump Tower was wiretapped.
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Call today 559-436-0850. We understand the importance of personalized service and local representation. Contact our office today at (559) 436-0850 or by text (559) 426-5116 and discover how we can help. Attorney Frank Nunes. Staff.
5899, "A Roadmap for America's Energy Future", which would have accelerated the exploration and production of fossil fuel, supported the rapid development of market-based alternative energy supplies, and expanded the number of nuclear reactors from 104 to 300 over the next thirty years. Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "It's a bill designed to produce energy, not restrict it" with "no freebies", and "offers a competitive twist to government support of renewable energy."
Devin Gerald Nunes ( / ˈnuːnɛs /; born October 1, 1973) is an American politician and former dairy farmer serving as the U.S. Representative for California's 22nd congressional district since 2003. A member of the Republican Party, Nunes was Chair of the House Intelligence Committee from 2015 to 2019.
Nunes co-sponsored the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act to stop a project designed to restore a dried-up section of the San Joaquin River. He also co-sponsored the California Emergency Drought Relief Act. The bills passed the House of Representatives in February 2014 and December 2014 respectively, but were not voted on by the Senate.
In February 2014, during a drought in California, Nunes rejected any link to global warming, claiming "Global warming is nonsense." He has said it was a "man-made drought" due to water restrictions from the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and other environmental regulations that have seen water allocations decline dramatically even in non-drought years.
In March 2017 the U.S. House intelligence committee, which Nunes chaired at the time, launched an investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. On April 6, 2017, he temporarily stepped aside from leading that investigation while the Office of Congressional Ethics investigated allegations (which Nunes denied) that he had improperly disclosed classified information to the public. In December 2017 the U.S. House Committee on Ethics closed its investigation without taking any action against Nunes.
His grandfather founded Nunes & Sons, a prominent dairy operation in Tulare County. His family operated their farm in California until 2006, when they sold the property and purchased a dairy in Sibley, Iowa. Nunes is of three-quarters Portuguese descent, with ancestors emigrating from the Azores to California.
In 2020, Nunes received 56.5% of the vote in the primary. Nunes defeated Phil Arballo in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Roberts ordered Biss and all the NuStar attorneys to read a court case to provide “instruction on appropriate behavior” regarding attorneys pressuring witnesses not to assert their rights, though the judge was clear that he made no finding on whether such pressure did occur.
But Judge Roberts called Biss’s explanation “puzzling and troubling.”. “Mr. Biss made a lengthy speaking objection claiming this was harassment,” Roberts wrote. “Here, where the identity and immigration status of the employees is a central issue, it is not harassing or irrelevant to ask questions about such documents.
Judge Roberts further stated that “the most puzzling and troubling aspect” of Biss’s “behavior” concerned his decision to seek a sidebar with F.S.D.’s attorney to determine “whether the witness wanted to take the Fifth Amendment.”