Judge tosses Devin Nunes suit over Esquire article

A federal judge has thrown out libel suits former Rep. Devin Nunes and his relatives filed over a 2018 Esquire article alleging that a dairy farm owned by Nunes’ family members hired undocumented workers.

U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams ruled Tuesday that the claims at issue in writer Ryan Lizza’s story — “Devin Nunes’s Family Farm is Hiding a Politically Explosive Secret” — were essentially accurate. The judge said that conclusion was fatal to the suits brought by Nunes, his relatives and the company used to operate the dairy, NuStar Farms.

“The assertion that NuStar knowingly used undocumented labor is substantially, objectively true,” wrote Williams, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.

Lizza, the veteran political reporter who authored the article, joined POLITICO in 2019 as Chief Washington Correspondent and a co-author of POLITICO Playbook.

In the 101-page opinion issued Tuesday, Williams said evidence developed during the litigation showed that the farm employed numerous workers who provided names and Social Security numbers that did not match Social Security Administration records.

“This Court ordered the SSA to verify the SSNs of all disclosed NuStar Farms employees,” Williams said. “Of those employees who NuStar plaintiffs employed on or before September 30, 2018, 243 of 319 employees’ names, dates of birth, and SSNs did not match SSA records.”

Williams also said there was testimony and evidence that the farm was warned about such mismatches, accepted expired credentials and did not properly complete forms designed to verify that workers were authorized to work in the U.S.

Six NuStar employees subpoenaed by Hearst and asked to produce identification and work authorization documents ultimately invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, the judge wrote.

Williams also noted that NuStar has never used the Department of Homeland Security’s voluntary program to check workers’ eligibility for employment, e-Verify.

In a deposition in the case, Nunes — who stepped down from Congress last year to become CEO of Trump’s social media venture, Trump Media & Technology Group — called e-Verify a failed program, said it does not work and is discriminatory, the judge said. But Williams noted that Nunes praised the same program during a 2019 Fox News interview and suggested it should be mandatory.

“It’s worked really, really well,” Nunes said. “And that means, if everybody was certified by the government that everybody working for you is, in fact, here on a legal permit, that in the long run is great.”

An attorney who represents Nunes, his relatives and the farm, Steven Biss, did not respond to a message seeking comment on the ruling.

Nunes could appeal the judge’s ruling to the St. Louis-based 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2020, Williams dismissed Nunes’ suit against Lizza and Hearst. However, an 8th Circuit panel reinstated that case by ruling that it was possible Lizza republished his story by tweeting it out in 2019.

In his new decision, Williams said Nunes hadn’t produced evidence to support the notion that the 2019 tweet amounted to republishing the story

Lizza declined to comment on the ruling.

A spokesperson for Hearst did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The suits against Hearst and Lizza were part of a flurry of at least 10 lawsuits Nunes filed beginning in 2019 against media organizations, journalists and critics he accused of defaming him. The most famous suit sought $250 million from Twitter, Democratic political strategist Liz Mair and anonymous figures operating Twitter accounts labeled as “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow.”

A Virginia judge dismissed Twitter from the case in 2020 and the remainder of the complaint last year.