Nunes Defends Suit: Public Figures Should Have Same Protections As Private People

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Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) defended his lawsuit against criticism on Tuesday evening, telling Fox News that people in the public eye should be protected against defamation just as private people are.

“So what we’re talking about here is defamation and so if it’s with reckless disregard for the truth and with malice, doesn’t matter if you’re a public figure or not,” he told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum.

“What I would say, Martha, is let’s just switch roles here. If multiple people had said you had done a lot of really bad things and it started impacting your contract with Fox — you’re a public figure, I’m a public figure. Essentially what they’re saying is it doesn’t matter, you nor I have any recourse at all. And so I don’t think that’s right. And look, we want to get to the discovery process. There’s no question not only have I been defamed, it’s been multiple times, hundreds and thousands of times.”

Nunes is suing Twitter and several individual users, claiming he’s been defamed and that Twitter has a bias against conservatives.

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