Judge: Nunes Family Farm "Knowingly" Hired Unauthorized Workers

Matt Naham, Law & Crime, Apr. 26, 2023

"The defamation lawsuit filed by Republican congressman-turned-Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes and his family against journalist Ryan Lizza and Hearst Magazines over a 2018 Esquire article fell flat this week, as a judge found it “substantially, objectively true” that the family’s farm in Iowa “knowingly” employed undocumented immigrants. ... In a 101-page opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams granted Lizza and Hearst Magazine’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the Nunes family members had not presented enough evidence to show that there was at least a dispute as to whether the facts in Lizza’s piece were, indeed, false — and falsity is a key element of proving a defamation claim. In his ruling, Williams found that the plaintiffs did likely know that at least some of the laborers on the farm were not in the country legally."