Devin Nunes can’t sue CNN and Jake Tapper over Paul Pelosi comments in Florida. Here’s why

A Florida judge has tossed Devin Nunes’ lawsuit against CNN and one of its anchors, saying that the former congressman filed it in the wrong state.

Nunes, who left Congress in 2022 to become the chief executive of former President Donald Trump’s media company, was suing CNN and Jake Tapper over comments the Washington correspondent made concerning Republicans who spread conspiracy theories about the autumn attack on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul.

The former congressman’s complaint against CNN, filed Nov. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, pointed to five sets of statements made in an Oct. 31 show and claimed they were defamatory.

But Judge Susan C. Bucklew decided on Wednesday that Nunes, who is in charge of Trump’s Truth Social, cannot sue CNN and Tapper in Florida because the segment and people who made it have no direct connection to the state.

Bucklew, in granting CNN and Tapper’s motions to dismiss, wrote that the show — which concerned a California resident who was attacked in San Francisco — was reported, filmed and produced in Washington D.C. with support from CNN’s New York bureau.

“Nunes merely alleges he suffered harm in Florida because he works there,” Bucklew wrote. “But, Tapper’s commentary was not directed at the business of Truth Social or Nunes’ work with the company.”

She wrote that the show was also not aimed specifically at Florida, but rather a national audience, meaning Nunes could not assert a strong enough connection to the state to sue there. And since Nunes is not a Florida resident, she added, it makes no sense to bring the defendants down there to litigate.

Simply, Bucklew wrote, “Nunes’ ties to Florida do not matter.”

This was Nunes’ second time suing CNN, and the second time his case against the news organization was dismissed.

Last spring, a panel of judges denied the media executive’s appeal to reopen his first case against CNN over a 2019 report that the California Republican went to Vienna, Austria, to gather political dirt on President Joe Biden.

Nunes has filed 11 lawsuits over the past four years against media organizations and people he claims have defamed or conspired to harm his reputation. Judges have dismissed many of these. Nunes, who represented the area around Tulare for almost a decade, has dropped some.

The CNN episode

Tapper’s statements pertained to a conspiracy theory that Pelosi’s husband was in a sexual relationship with his attacker. David DePape hit Paul Pelosi with a hammer during a home invasion, which resulted in Pelosi’s hospitalization for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands that required surgery.

One comment that Nunes’ lawyers cited mentioned the executive of Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which runs Truth Social, by name.

Tapper said that on Truth Social, Nunes “shared this Halloween image with the words, ‘at least this guy has his clothes on.’ Nunes also reposted this meme using a poster for the gay romantic comedy Bros, twisting it into a smear of Paul Pelosi. And, again, the man who tried to bash Paul Pelosi’s head in with a hammer. Words fail.”

Another of Tapper’s comments that Nunes’ lawyers cited was, “What is wrong with these people?”

Paul Pelosi, 82, did not know DePape, 42, before he broke into the Pelosi’s San Francisco home in October. DePape said he was searching for the former speaker, who was not in San Francisco at the time, with the intent to hold her hostage and breaking her kneecaps if she “lied,” according to a federal criminal complaint.

Neither of Nunes’ attorneys, Jason Kobal or Steven Biss, responded to a request for comment. A spokesperson for TMTG did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for CNN declined to comment.

Nunes’ claims

Nunes’ lawyers wrote in the complaint that the “clear defamatory gist” was Tapper implied Nunes refused to condemn the attack, justified the violence, mocked it and “lied and suggested that the encounter between Mr. Pelosi and Mr. DePape was sexual in nature.”

They wrote that Tapper insinuated that Nunes “has a depraved mind and that he acted immorally, fraudulently, unprofessionally, spread lies about Paul Pelosi, and disparaged and defamed Paul Pelosi.” And that Tapper opened Nunes up to hate from CNN viewers and followers because of “juxtaposition and omission” of certain facts.

Nunes’ lawyers had claimed CNN and Tapper made statements with actual malice, the standard public figures must meet to collect damages in defamation lawsuits. Nunes would have needed to prove that the news organization and correspondent made the statements knowing they were false or with reckless disregard as to whether they were true.

The lawyers also claimed that resharing a social media post was not an endorsement of the meme.

Per the Tulare native’s complaint, a lawyer for TMTG responded to a CNN inquiry before Tapper’s show and said that Nunes condemned the attack on Newsmax; the lawyer linked to the interview in the email. The complaint claimed Nunes had also texted Tapper that if he was on Truth Social, the anchor would know the chief executive had condemned the attack.

CNN’s claims

Tapper, in a Nov. 7 show following up on the Oct. 31 segment, quoted Nunes’ Newsmax interview about always condemning violence.

In addition to saying that Florida was the incorrect venue, lawyers for CNN said that Nunes failed to show that anything said was defamatory.

They claimed that Nunes “cannot dispute that he shared posts mocking the attack, nor can he credibly allege that Tapper’s commentary implies provably false facts about him.”

CNN’s lawyers claimed that “Instead, seeking to silence public criticism of his spreading material making light of the bludgeoning of an 82-year-old man,” Nunes filed a “baseless defamation lawsuit.”

They said that, within the long segment that included other conservative comments either condemning the attack or spreading conspiracy theories, Tapper’s rhetorical question of what was “wrong with these people” was protected under the First Amendment. Other statements either did not concern Nunes or were easily seen on social media and not outright defamatory.

Nunes could not say that excluding his condemnation of Pelosi’s attack in the Newsmax interview implied libel because he still shared the “offensive memes” after, they wrote: That condemnation “does not insulate him from criticism” of the Truth Social posts.