últimas notícias

Rep. Devin Nunes has filed a $150 million lawsuit against the McClatchy Company for allegedly attempting to derail his investigations into former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Russia.

A complaint says McClatchy and one its reporters, MacKenzie Mays, “schemed to defame [Nunes] and destroy his reputation.” The central purpose of this alleged scheme was to “interfere with [Nunes]’ Congressional investigation of corruption by the Clinton campaign and alleged ‘collusion’ between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election.”

The complaint highlights a story by the Fresno Bee, a California newspaper owned by McClatchy, titled: “A yacht, cocaine, prostitutes: Winery partly owned by Nunes sued after fundraiser event.”

The way the article was written, the lawsuit said, gave the impression that Nunes was somehow involved in a 2015 party aboard a yacht where “25 of the Napa Valley-based [Alpha Omega Winery]’s top investors, all men — [who] were openly using what appeared to be cocaine and ‘drawing straws’ for which sex worker to hire.”

The complaint points to the headline, which describes the event as a fundraiser instead of a charity event, despite McClatchy’s knowledge that Nunes had nothing to do with the event.

“The McClatchy headline intentionally omitted the word ‘charity’ and labeled the event a ‘fundraiser’ in a clear effort to imply it was a political fundraising event that a politician like Congressman Nunes would naturally attend,” the complaint says. “Indeed, the entire purpose of every element of the Yacht/Cocaine/Prostitutes article – the headline, the photo, the film clips, and the text itself – is to link Nunes to an event that McClatchy actually knew before publication he had no involvement with.”

The complaint also alleges McClatchy coordinated in some way with Republican consultant Liz Mair, who is described as an opposition researcher. Mair was referred to in one McClatchy article as only a “political commentator” despite running Mair Strategies, an opposition research firm.

“McClatchy failed to inform readers of Mair’s employment with Mair Strategies, an opposition research company that, in Mair’s own words, ‘smears’ targets for paying clients,” the lawsuit alleges.

May, who was an investigative reporter for the Fresno Bee, is now a reporter for Politico covering education in California.

Appearing on Fox News after he filed the lawsuit Monday, Nunes said some of McClatchy’s reporters there were “the biggest perpetuators of the Russia hoax.”

“I’m serious. I’m coming to clean up all of the mess,” Nunes told host Sean Hannity. “So, if you’re out there and you lied and you defamed, we’re going to come after you.”

The McClatchy lawsuit is Nunes’ second in as many months. He filed a lawsuit last month against Twitter, which also named Mair as a defendant, seeking $250 million in compensatory damages for allegedly “shadow-banning conservatives” to impact the 2018 midterm elections and being defamatory against him.

“Remember, a few weeks ago I filed against Twitter, that they were censoring conservatives,” the California congressman said Monday.

In the March lawsuit, Nunes also listed the people behind the accounts “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow” as defendants. The cow account went viral, ultimately getting more Twitter followers than Nunes.

Nunes served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for four years before Democrats took control of the House this year. He is now ranking member of the panel.