Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) could be in a whole new world of hurt if a non-partisan watchdog group is able to follow the money by accessing his financial records.
As we all know, Nunes has filed multiple frivolous lawsuits against media outlets, social media accounts and individuals for telling the truth about him or mocking him in a scheme designed to silence them.
So far, however, Nunes’ lawsuits are not going well. He recently lost one lawsuit he had filed against Fusion GPS over the Steele dossier, with the judge ruling that Nunes offered little evidence to make a case and warned him that he better have more legs to stand on if he refiles.
The question, however, is how exactly is Nunes paying for all of these lawsuits?
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To find out, the Campaign Legal Center has demanded the release of Nunes’ financial records by filing a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics calling for an investigation.
According to the Fresno Bee:
The complaint says Nunes appears to be in ‘blatant violation of House rules,’ because he would have trouble paying for all these lawsuits solely from his congressional salary of $174,000 per year. The group argues he’d only be able to pay if he received legal services for free, at a discounted rate, or based on a contingency fee, meaning the lawyer would get compensated from Nunes’ winnings if he prevails in his lawsuits.”
“In all of those cases, the complaint says, Nunes must disclose the legal help he is receiving by filing a legal expense fund, otherwise it would represent an illegal gift given to Nunes under congressional ethics rules,” the newspaper continued.
The Fresno Bee is particularly interested in how Nunes is paying because one of the lawsuits he has filed is against them and their parent company McClatchy.
Again, these are frivolous lawsuits, so if Nunes’ lawyer took these cases on contingency, he must be really dumb. The cases against media outlets and social media accounts will likely fail because freedom of speech is guaranteed by the Constitution. Because Nunes is a public official, he is fair game. The only reason he filed these lawsuits in Virginia is because the state allows such frivolous filings.
The Bee also pointed out that Nunes’ lawsuits may violate established regulations set by the House.
“Representative Nunes’s overt involvement with the highly-publicized lawsuits threatens to establish a precedent that the Legal Expense Fund (“LEF”) regulations no longer apply to Members, although Representative Nunes is entitled to legal representation and he may pursue any legal action to protect and defend his interests, he must comply with House rules,” the paper said. “An (Office of Congressional Ethics) investigation will preserve Representative Nunes’s legal right to counsel while upholding well-established House rules and precedent.”
If the Office of Congressional Ethics opens such an investigation, Nunes could be screwed. Not only could the office find out how he is paying for these lawsuits, but they could also find payments relating to activities involving Trump’s Ukraine scandal and Russian meddling in our elections.
Clearly, Nunes didn’t think of that before he filed these lawsuits.
Featured image via screen capture
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