Judge rules Nunes defamation lawsuit against NBCUniversal can proceed

A judge in New York has ruled that a defamation case brought against NBCUniversal by former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) can proceed.

In a 22-page decision, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel wrote Nunes’s attorneys had “plausibly allege[d] actual malice” in the case, Reuters reported, noting the justice did not make a determination about the merits of the former congressman’s claim against the media company.

Nunes’s lawsuit stems from March 2021 statements made by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow during her prime-time show where she suggested that the Republican had refused to turn over a package he had received from Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker and suspected Russian agent, to the FBI.

The former lawmaker’s initial complaint alleged Maddow was attacking him because of his “emergence as the most prominent skeptic in Congress of Maddow’s marquee news narrative from 2017 to 2019: that the Trump campaign colluded with Russians to hack the 2016 presidential elections.” 

Since leaving Congress, Nunes has since joined Truth Social, former President Trump’s social media platform. He has unsuccessfully sued a number of other media companies for defamation in recent years, including CNN and The Washington Post.