California Republican Rep. Devin Nunes is suing Twitter and three individual Twitter users, accusing them of defaming him in order to derail his re-election campaign and deter him from the Russia investigation.<\/b>
\nThe California congressman accuses Twitter of allowing the users to spread \u00ab\u00a0false and defamatory statements\u00a0\u00bb about him, alleging that the company harbors a political agenda against conservatives.
\u00ab\u00a0As part of its agenda to squelch Nunes’ voice, cause him extreme pain and suffering, influence the 2018 Congressional election, and distract, intimidate and interfere with Nunes’ investigation into corruption and Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential Election, Twitter did absolutely nothing,\u00a0\u00bb the complaint says.
The lawsuit was first reported by Fox News, which posted a draft copy of the complaint on Monday. CNN has reached out to both Nunes’ congressional office and lawyer.
Twitter declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Nunes named Republican strategist Liz Mair and two other parody accounts — Devin Nunes’ Mom (@DevinNunesMom) and Devin Nunes’ Cow (@DevinCow) — in his lawsuit.
He accused Mair and the two other accounts of engaging in a \u00ab\u00a0concerted defamation campaign\u00a0\u00bb to \u00ab\u00a0cause immense pain\u00a0\u00bb and divert his attention from leading the House Intelligence’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Nunes pointed to several tweets that he said falsely accused him of federal crimes and includes vulgar language.
\u00ab\u00a0Devin’s boots are full of manure. He’s udder-ly worthless and its pasture time to move him to prison,\u00a0\u00bb reads one tweet from Devin Nunes’ Cow.
The Twitter account @DevinNunesMom was suspended after Nunes’ real mother complained, the complaint said. @DevinCow remains active and has gained followers since Nunes’ complaint was made public. The account posted Monday, \u00ab\u00a0I’m not quitting my day job\u00a0\u00bb in response to the lawsuit. Nunes has asked the court to reveal the users behind the two parody accounts.
Nunes told Fox News on Monday that the lawsuit will be \u00ab\u00a0the first of many.\u00a0\u00bb
\u00ab\u00a0We’re actually going after Twitter first because they are the main proliferator and they spread this fake news and this slanderous news,\u00a0\u00bb Nunes told Fox News.
Mair, who has been outspoken against the President and in 2015 set up an anti-Trump super PAC called \u00ab\u00a0Make America Awesome,\u00a0\u00bb said on Twitter that she is \u00ab\u00a0declining comment on this for now.\u00a0\u00bb
Nunes’ lawsuit also accuses Twitter of \u00ab\u00a0shadow-banning conservatives\u00a0\u00bb — where a user is unaware his posts aren’t viewable by others except him.
Twitter has denied that it \u00ab\u00a0shadow bans\u00a0\u00bb its users, adding that \u00ab\u00a0we certainly don’t shadow ban based on political viewpoints or ideology.\u00a0\u00bb
A frequent user of Twitter, Trump has slammed the company, claiming that it is biased against Republicans. The President tweeted about the news of Nunes’ lawsuit late Monday.
He later tweeted on Tuesday morning, \u00ab\u00a0Facebook, Google and Twitter, not to mention the Corrupt Media, are sooo on the side of the Radical Left Democrats. But fear not, we will win anyway, just like we did before! #MAGA.\u00a0\u00bb
CNN legal analyst Laura Coates said Tuesday the lawsuit is unlikely to go far.
\u00ab\u00a0The notion that this would be an actual, valid lawsuit is a far-fetched one,\u00a0\u00bb she said on CNN’s \u00ab\u00a0Right Now,\u00a0\u00bb adding that the law protects platforms like Twitter.<\/p>\n