WASHINGTON _ A Virginia judge overseeing a pair of Rep. Devin Nunes' lawsuits against news organizations handed the California Republican two setbacks in one week, granting motions by The Washington Post and CNN to move the cases to other jurisdictions.
In both decisions, Judge Robert E. Payne wrote there was "no logical connection" for the California congressman to sue the news organizations at a federal court in Richmond, Va.
Payne moved Nunes' case against The Washington Post to the District of Columbia, and the CNN lawsuit to the Southern District of New York.
The decision in The Washington Post lawsuit, published to a public database on Tuesday, closely resembles' Payne's ruling in the CNN case. Both decisions include warnings to Nunes' attorney, Steven Biss, advising him to refrain from using "ad hominem" attacks in legal briefs.
In the Post lawsuit, Biss referred to a reporter as a "puppet of the FBI and CIA, employed to selectively leak talking points and classified information to smear targets." Biss in a court brief called CNN "the mother of all fake news."
Nunes filed the lawsuit against The Post in March in the U.S. District Court of Eastern Virginia, alleging a Feb. 21 news story describing an intelligence briefing given to members of Congress regarding Russia's perceived preference for President Donald Trump's reelection was part of a long-running effort to damage Nunes' reputation.
Only a few paragraphs in The Post story focus on Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, saying Trump learned about the briefing from Nunes. The Post cites one anonymous source for that information.
In transferring Nunes' lawsuit to D.C., Payne wrote he was concerned about "forum shopping," a term for when attorneys strategically file cases in certain courts because they think they'll get a more favorable outcome, regardless of whether the court has jurisdiction.
"Nunes does not provide any explanation to support his conclusory allegation that transferring this case to the District of Columbia 'would accomplish absolutely nothing more than shifting the balance of inconvenience to (Nunes).' Indeed, Nunes 'works at the Capitol,' which is located in Washington, D.C.," Payne wrote. "To the extent that Nunes would have to travel from California, Nunes has not suggested that traveling to one of Washington, D.C.'s three major airports would be more inconvenient than traveling to Richmond, Virginia."
Nunes a year ago began suing media organizations and critics, alleging in the cases that various organizations conspired to damage his reputation. In Virginia courts, he has sued CNN, The Washington Post and McClatchy _ the parent company of the largest newspaper in his district, The Fresno Bee. He's also suing Twitter in Virginia.
In Iowa, he is suing Hearst over a news story about his family's dairy farm in that state.
All of the news organizations are fighting the lawsuits and moved to dismiss them. McClatchy has called Nunes' lawsuit against the company a "baseless attack on local journalism."
