WASHINGTON — The way that Congressman Devin Nunes’ family is financing its defamation lawsuit against a journalist and magazine company over a story about their Iowa farm does not raise concerns, a federal judge wrote last week.
Magistrate Judge Mark Roberts of Iowa’s Northern District Court wanted to know if the California Republican was involved in funding the family’s case, he wrote in a ruling last month that made the family share how they were paying their legal fees.
Roberts wrote that he found “nothing suspicious or untoward in the documents produced” that detail how the family is paying their attorney, Steven Biss, and other firms in the lawsuit.
“The records include what appears to be an ordinary attorney fee agreement between Mr. Biss’s firm and Plaintiffs,” Magistrate Judge Mark Roberts wrote in his finding.
The documents also showed proof that the family was paying other law firms working on the case, Roberts wrote.
The Nunes family is represented by lawyers Biss, who represents the congressman in almost all of his defamation lawsuits, and William McGinn.
The family is suing reporter Ryan Lizza and Hearst, the parent company of Esquire, over a 2018 story published in that magazine that suggested that their Iowa farm, NuStar Farms, employed undocumented immigrants.
Last month, Roberts agreed with attorneys for Lizza and Hearst that the family had to disclose who was paying for the suit. He reviewed the documents behind closed doors and shared them with attorneys for Lizza and Hearst.
The records are otherwise sealed, meaning that people beyond legal counsel for the case cannot review them.
Lawyers for Lizza and Hearst asked that the Nunes family share who was paying for their legal fees this summer.
In their motion, they wrote that the lawsuit might be funded by wealthy private donors associated with the congressman in order to “chill” media coverage. They argued that financial information could shed light on whether the Nunes family should be considered public figures, which would make it harder for them to win a defamation lawsuit, depending on who was behind the lawsuit.
The family has denied coordinating with the congressman throughout the proceedings, but had not denied receiving financial support for the litigation. Roberts had said that disclosing who was funding the suit would provide clarity on whether the family had actually coordinated with the congressman.
Nunes is a witness in the family’s case.
He shares the same lawyer, Biss, as the family in other lawsuits he has filed against media companies and people he claims have defamed or conspired against him since 2019, including against CNN, The Washington Post and McClatchy, the parent company of The Fresno Bee.
One of those cases is against Lizza and Hearst over the same story about the Iowa farm. A federal judge last year dismissed that suit, finding the story did not defame him. An appeals court reopened part of the case this fall over a tweet Lizza sent hyperlinking to his story after Nunes sued.
Hearst and Lizza’s attorneys have asked the court to reconsider reopening the case. Roberts has stalled proceedings in the family’s lawsuit pending that decision by the appeals court.
A spokesman for the congressman, Biss, McGinn, Lizza, and attorneys for Lizza and Hearst all did not respond to a request for comment.
Questions about how Nunes has paid for his own lawsuits fueled an ethics complaint by a nonpartisan watchdog group last year. It is unclear whether the Office of Congressional Ethics, which looks into those complaints, has reviewed it or found a violation.
The congressman’s brother had previously said that he had “no idea” who was paying their lawyers and that the family had only paid one $500 fee in a court hearing this summer.
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