Trump ally Devin Nunes can sue NBCUniversal for defamation

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. decide on Monday stated Devin Nunes, the previous California congressman and an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, can sue NBCUniversal for defamation over a remark by Rachel Maddow regarding his relationship with a suspected Russian agent.

With out ruling on the deserves, U.S. District Decide Kevin Castel in Manhattan stated Nunes “plausibly allege () precise malice” with respect to a press release from a March 2021 broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Present.”

Maddow was discussing a bundle addressed to Nunes from Andriy Derkach, a pro-Russia Ukrainian legislator, and stated Nunes “refused at hand it over to the FBI, which is what you must do in case you get one thing from any person who’s sanctioned by the U.S. as a Russian agent.”

Nunes’ grievance, which seeks damages, stated MSNBC and Maddow knew the bundle had been turned over, however as a substitute “got down to inflict most ache and struggling on plaintiff with a purpose to hurt plaintiff’s fame.”

In a 22-page choice, Castel stated Maddow didn’t attribute Nunes’ alleged refusal to any supply, and that whereas she may need recognized a couple of comparable accusation in a Politico article “a courtroom doesn’t weigh competing, believable theories of precise malice on a movement to dismiss.”

The decide additionally stated different statements made by Maddow weren’t defamatory. Maddow will not be a defendant.

NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast Corp (NASDAQ:), and its attorneys didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. Nunes’ attorneys didn’t instantly reply to comparable requests.

The U.S. Treasury Division sanctioned Derkach in September 2020 for making an attempt to intervene in that 12 months’s U.S. presidential election, after he was linked to the dissemination of data to harm then-Democratic candidate and eventual victor Joe Biden.

Nunes left Congress final December to grow to be chief government of the social media enterprise Trump Media & Expertise Group.

He has sued a number of information organizations lately.

In April, federal appeals courts in New York and Washington, D.C. refused to revive defamation circumstances by Nunes in opposition to CNN, which is a part of Warner Bros Discovery (NASDAQ:) Inc, and the Washington Publish.

The case is Nunes v NBCUniversal Media Inc, U.S. District Court docket, Southern District of New York, No. 22-01633.