Like the lawyers who are suing multiple media outlets for smearing the Covington Catholic boys, House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes is on a mission to hold the media accountable for its malicious lies. Last Month, the congressman filed a lawsuit in Virginia state court against Twitter and a handful of its users–including Republican consultant Liz Mair– seeking $250 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages.
On Monday, Fox News reported that Rep. Nunes filed a $150 million lawsuit against the McClatchy Company and others, alleging that one of the news agency’s reporters conspired with Mair to smear Nunes and derail his committee’s Russia investigation. The California congressman is also determined to hold former Obama officials and others for perpetrating the Russia collusion hoax.
The filing, obtained by Fox News, came a day after Nunes, R-Calif., revealed he would send eight criminal referrals to the Justice Department this week concerning purported surveillance abuses by federal authorities during the Russia probe, false statements to Congress and other matters.
In Monday’s complaint, Nunes alleged that Mair conspired with McClatchy reporter MacKenzie Mays to spread a variety of dishonest smears online and in print– including the outrageous allegation that Nunes “was involved with cocaine and underage prostitutes.”
On Fox News’ Hannity Monday night, Nunes said that a couple of reporters at McClatchy were “the biggest perpetrators of the Russia hoax,” pointing out that left-wing operatives also targeted the National Rifle Association with the media’s help.
“They targeted a lawyer, Cleta Mitchell,” Nunes said. “All this was done in concert while they were slandering and attacking me and defaming me and attacking Republicans. And the whole time, they were getting this information from someone.”
Nunes told Hannity that he is demanding that McClatchy retract the smears they leveled against him and others.
“They need to come clean with the American people–retract all of their fake news stories,” Nunes said. “This is part of the broader clean-up. Remember, a few weeks ago, I filed against Twitter — they’re censoring conservatives. McClatchy is one of the worst offenders of this. But we’re coming after the rest of them. I think people are beginning to wake up now that I’m serious — I’m coming to clean up all the mess. So if you’re out there and you lied and you defamed, we’re going to come after you,” he said.
Reached for comment late Monday, Mair directed Fox News to a USA Today op-ed she penned earlier this week concerning Nunes’ previous lawsuit entitled, “Free speech means I don’t have to be nice to Devin Nunes on Twitter. So why’s he suing me?”
Nunes’ lawsuit cites a May 23, 2018 article published by the Fresno Bee and written by Mays, entitled, “A yacht, cocaine, prostitutes: Winery partly owned by Nunes sued after fundraiser event.”
The article described a lawsuit’s allegations of a 2015 party aboard the yacht involving “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.”
That same day, Mays tweeted the article, mentioning Nunes in the same sentence as “cocaine and underage sex workers.”