WASHINGTON _ A Virginia judge on Friday moved Rep. Devin Nunes' lawsuit against CNN to New York and wrote that there was no "logical connection" for the California congressman to sue the media company in Virginia.
The lawsuit is one of seven defamation cases Nunes and attorney Steven Biss filed since 2019 against news organizations, Twitter, his critics and the investigative research firm that created the so-called Steele dossier. Nunes, R-Calif., had filed all but two of the lawsuits in Virginia courts.
Judge Robert E. Payne, of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia, granted CNN's request to move the case to the Southern District of New York. It's the first time in the set of lawsuits that a judge has moved one of Nunes' lawsuits to another state.
Payne also delivered two warnings to Biss.
One centered on whether the case should have been filed in Virginia in the first place. "The Eastern District of Virginia is not Nunes' home forum, and there is no logical connection between the events in this case and this district," Payne wrote.
"Lastly, the Court has significant concerns about forum shopping. As the Court has explained to (Nunes') counsel on numerous occasions," Payne wrote, "the "Court cannot stand as a willing repository for cases which have no real nexus to this district."
The second referred to a rebuke Biss received last year over "ad hominem attacks" in a lawsuit against Jason Goodman, who runs the Crowdsource the Truth channel on YouTube. Biss in court documents wrote that the case was about "the conscious and deliberate destruction of a man's untarnished name and impeccable reputation by social media vigilantes and trolls."
Payne, in moving the CNN case, wrote, "Unfortunately, that circumstance also reflects some of the papers filed in this case." He did not sanction Biss.
That's the fourth warning over the past two years that Biss has received from a judge about his conduct possibly resulting in sanctions. No judges have actually sanctioned him, though he has previously had his law license suspended for a year over misconduct.
In the CNN lawsuit, Biss wrote, "CNN is the mother of all fake news. It is the least trusted name. CNN is eroding the fabric of America, proselytizing, sowing distrust and disharmony."
The CNN lawsuit centers on a November news story about Nunes' interactions with a now-indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani who was a figure in the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
CNN reported a claim that Nunes had traveled to Vienna to meet with Ukrainian officials digging up political dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden. CNN cited an attorney for Giuliani associate Lev Parnas as a source for the allegations. Parnas had been indicted on charges related to campaign finance crimes.
Nunes refused to speak with CNN and released photos when he sued the media company showing he was not in Vienna at the time CNN's source said he traveled there.
Nunes and Biss have six lawsuits pending that allege defamation against Nunes. Three others are against media companies and journalists, including The Washington Post, Hearst and McClatchy, the parent company of the largest newspaper in Nunes' district, The Fresno Bee.
In the McClatchy case, Nunes alleges he was defamed by a news story about an employee's lawsuit against a winery in which he holds a financial stake. McClatchy has called the lawsuit a "baseless attack on local journalism" and moved to dismiss the lawsuit.
The two other cases are against Fusion GPS, the research firm behind the Steele dossier; and against Twitter.
Nunes and Biss filed all but one of those cases in Virginia, while all the defendants have petitioned to have their cases moved to other courts or dismissed.
Nunes has not filed a lawsuit against a news organization in a California court. California has a law meant to discourage people from filing lawsuits that could intimidate free speech. It allows judges to quickly dismiss certain cases and compel plaintiffs to pay legal fees.
