Congressman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) has announced a new lawsuit against the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, suing the firm for $9.9 million, according to Fox News.
Nunes, who served as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, alleges that Fusion GPS engaged in “smear” tactics and “racketeering activities,” and that the firm made numerous “effort[s] to intimidate, harass, threaten, influence, interfere with, impede, and ultimately to derail” efforts by congressional Republicans to investigate the firm’s wrongdoings.
Fusion GPS was the firm hired by Marc Elias, a longtime attorney for the Clinton family, on behalf of the Democratic National Committee in 2016, for the purpose of gathering opposition research against then-candidate Donald Trump. Fusion GPS, under the leadership of Glenn Simpson, then hired former British spy Christopher Steele to compile the research, which led to Simpson creating a dossier filled almost entirely with false allegations and uncorroborated stories.
Congressman Nunes further explained in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity that “When we were investigating Fusion GPS, they were actively involved in working to smear me to obstruct justice, to derail our investigation,” adding that this lawsuit is “just one of the many steps we’re gonna continue to take.”
As chairman, Nunes pushed for vigorous investigations into the surveillance of the Trump campaign during the Obama Administration. His efforts culminated in the release of an explosive memo revealing several crucial facts, including the fact that when the Department of Justice presented Steele’s dossier to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, it did not divulge the partisan political origins of the dossier. Nunes also revealed that the Obama Administration did conduct surveillance on the Trump campaign headquarters in Trump Tower, in an act referred to as “wire-tapping.”
This is also the latest in a string of high-profile lawsuits by the California Republican, including a $250 million lawsuit against Twitter for its censorship of conservatives, and a $150 million lawsuit against the news outlet McClatchy, over similar allegations of interfering with the Intelligence Committee’s investigative efforts.