A federal appeals court has revived Rep. Devin Nunes’ defamation lawsuit against reporter Ryan Lizza and Hearst Magazine Media Inc. after the reporter shared the allegedly defamatory article on his Twitter account.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit last week reversed a lower court’s dismissal of the complaint, noting that Mr. Lizza shared the contested article on his Twitter account roughly a month after the lawsuit was originally filed in September 2019.
“The complaint sufficiently alleges that Lizza republished the article after he knew that the Congressman denied knowledge of undocumented labor on the farm or participation in any conspiracy to hide it,” wrote Judge Steven Colloton, a George W. Bush appointee.
Mr. Nunes, California Republican, filed the lawsuit after Mr. Lizza published an article in 2018 in Esquire magazine, then owned by Hearst, about his family’s farm in Iowa. The article suggested the family kept it a secret that they had sold their California farm and had begun operating a dairy farm in Iowa.
According to the court’s ruling, the article charged that Mr. Nunes’ family used undocumented labor in its operation of the farm. The online article was titled “Devin Nunes’s Family Farm Is Hiding a Politically Explosive Secret,” and the print version was titled “Milking the System.”
Mr. Nunes claims that the article was defamatory because it falsely implied he “‘conspired or colluded with his family and with others to hide or cover-up’ that the farm ‘employs undocumented labor,’ ” according to court papers.
Mr. Nunes’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Lizza and Hearst had argued that the First Amendment protects them against the defamation claim, arguing that opinion is protected.
Neither Mr. Lizza nor representatives from Hearst responded to a request for comment.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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