On Tuesday, House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes (R-CA) made good on his threat to sue CNN over its report that he had met with a former Ukrainian official to dig up dirt on Joe Biden.
In a defamation suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Nunes demands CNN shell out $435,000,000 in damages.
“CNN is the mother of fake news. It is the least trusted name,” the complaint reads. “CNN is eroding the fabric of America, proselytizing, sowing distrust and disharmony. It must be held accountable.”
The CNN article in question had published indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas’ allegation that Nunes had met Viktor Shokin, an ex-Ukrainian prosecutor, in Vienna in December 2018 in pursuit of politically damaging information on Biden, President Donald Trump’s top 2020 rival.
Parnas’s lawyer also told CNN that his client had spoken with Nunes around the time when the congressman allegedly went to Vienna.
In the lawsuit, Nunes denies ever meeting Shokin, traveling to Vienna in December last year, and communicating with Parnas during that time.
“The ulterior purpose of the CNN Article is to advance the impeachment inquiry, to seed doubt in the minds of Americans, and to influence the outcome of the 2020 election,” the congressman alleges.
Nunes filed his suit on the same day his committee released its impeachment report, which revealed that Nunes had multiple phone calls with Giuliani and Parnas as they were both carrying out their scheme to pressure Ukraine into announcing an investigation into Biden.
Read the complaint below:
