The complaint, which the California Republican filed in federal court in Virginia, alleges that Fusion GPS and Campaign for Accountability (CfA) worked on a “joint and systematic effort to intimidate, harass, threaten, influence, interfere with, impede, and ultimately to derail” Nunes’ investigation of the dossier, which he directed as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).
In the lawsuit, Nunes draws a link between CfA payments to Fusion GPS and a string of ethics complaints that the watchdog group filed against him last year.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reported Aug. 1 that CfA’s 2018 tax filings show the group paid Fusion GPS nearly $140,000 unspecified research activities.
CfA filed three complaints against Nunes with the Office of Congressional Ethics. In a Jan. 25, 2018 complaint, CfA accused Nunes of leaking sensitive House Intelligence Committee information about Fusion GPS.
Nunes claims that the ethics complaints were "fraudulent and retaliatory." He also claims that Glenn Simpson, a founder of Fusion GPS, lied on at least two occasions with regard to the Steele "dossier":
Nunes contends that Fusion GPS and Simpson have also retaliated against him for fear that the Republican would submit criminal referrals against Simpson over testimony he gave HPSCI and the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017.
Nunes accuses Simpson of lying in his HPSCI testimony on Nov. 14, 2017 when he said that he had contact with the Justice Department and FBI regarding the dossier only after the 2016 election. Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department official whose wife was a contractor at Fusion GPS, testified on Aug. 28, 2018 that he and Simpson met in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 22, 2016.
Nunes also claims that Simpson lied during his Senate testimony on Aug. 22, 2017 when he denied having a client for Trump-related work after the 2016 election. A non-profit group called The Democracy Integrity Project hired Fusion GPS and Steele’s London-based firm in 2017.
“Fearing a criminal referral for his false statements to the FBI and DOJ, for lying to Congress and the Senate, and for obstructing the House Intelligence Committee in its Russia investigation, the Defendants directly and aggressively retaliated against Plaintiff, employing the same or similar means and methods as Fusion GPS and Simpson have employed multiple times in the past to smear the opposition,” the complaint says.
This could prove interesting. Much, if not all, of Fusion GPS' dossier related activities are probably non-criminal. However, Nunes will certainly make extensive discovery demands that will quite likely oppose Democrat networks, both of communications and of money.
http://sjvsun.com/news/politics/nunes-shifts-legal-gears-eyes-racketeering-case-over-coordinated-attacks/
ReplyDeleteYes, typical liberal tactics--going after family members.
DeleteAs you may know about me, I am a staunch defender of the First Amendment. However, like Justice Clarence Thomas, I think that the extensive protections afforded to the press need to be examined.
ReplyDeleteThe media screw-up with the Cov Catholic boys, the Russian Hoax, deplatforming, revealing national secrets, acts of omissions by reporters, reporters incestuous relationship with Dems and the Deep State, etc. This is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
At least in my opinion.
This is just one area of the law that was distorted beyond all reason in the 60s and succeeding decades.
DeleteI think most people are mistaken about freedom of the press. The press the Founding Fathers were talking about were the physical printing presses. Trying to stop reporters is futile, as you can't send everybody to jail. The real danger of government against the physical printing presses themselves. Control the ink control the press.
Delete