The judge suggested refiling the case against Fusion GPS could trigger sanctions.
A federal judge has tossed out a racketeering lawsuit House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes filed last year against the private investigation firm at the heart of the Trump-Russia saga.
Alexandria, Virginia-based U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady’s two-page order made short work of Nunes’ suit, which sought $9.9 million in damages from Fusion GPS, its founder Glenn Simpson and a nonprofit watchdog group, Campaign for Accountability.
The judge also signaled that pressing on with the legal battle could result in sanctions against Nunes and his attorney, Steven Biss.
The California GOP lawmaker claimed that he was a victim of “active, coordinated and ongoing corruption, fraud and obstruction of justice” by the defendants that stemmed from his efforts to investigate the firm’s role in stoking suspicions about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s ties to Russia during the 2016 campaign.
Fusion GPS carried out a project for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee that produced a compilation of raw intelligence on the Russian connections of Trump and his allies. The controversial compendium came to be known as the Steele Dossier, after its author, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
Nunes’ suit, filed under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, claims that after he challenged the accuracy of the dossier, Fusion GPS, Simpson and CfA morphed that effort into one targeting him with a series of ethics complaints and other adverse publicity.
However, O’Grady said the allegations in the complaint were too vague to meet standards the Supreme Court laid out in 2007 for the amount of detail needed to move forward with a civil case. He also suggested his Virginia courtroom might not be the right place to sue.
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A federal judge has tossed out a racketeering lawsuit House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes filed last year against the private investigation firm at the heart of the Trump-Russia saga https://t.co/dPsTCaJ3kK
— POLITICO (@politico) February 22, 2020
Looking forward to finding out who is funding @DevinNunes ’s frivolous lawsuits against internet cows and his fake internet mom which are still cluttering our judicial system.
— Mandy Thornton (@thornton_mandy) February 22, 2020
Note: Nunes is not “destroyed” when one of his frivolous suits is dismissed. The people who like him like the suits because “he fights,” not because of merit. Everyone who isn’t a moron or a open partisan already knew the lawsuits were losers.
— GoneWithTheHat (@Popehat) February 22, 2020
The explanation of Devin Nunes https://t.co/GvR4m2czXC
— MahoBay (@Nicctrick) February 22, 2020
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