Judge Says Devin Nunes Can Sue NBCUniversal for Libel Over Rachel Maddow Segment

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A District Court judge for the Southern District of New York just cleared the path for former Congressman Devin Nunes to sue NBCUniversal over a segment from Rachel Maddow.

For the past year, Nunes has attempted to file a lawsuit for his allegation that Maddow smeared him over his dealings with Andriy Derkach, a Ukranian legislator who has been sanctioned by the U.S. government for being a suspected Russian agent. The commentary relates to an incident back in 2019, when Nunes’ office received a package from Derkach while he was ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Judge P. Kevin Castel handed down a decision on Tuesday which states that the package “was handled solely by Nunes’ staff and delivered, unopened, to the offices of the FBI. That same day, Nunes sent a letter to Attorney General William P. Barr advising him of the receipt of the package.”

Nunes’ precise claim stems from a broadcast of Maddow’s show in March 2021 when she held a segment about a DNI report that said Derkach and others sought to use prominent Americans to “launder their narratives to US officials and audiences.” Maddow brought up Nunes’ package from Derkach, saying that he “refused to hand it over to the FBI, which is what you should do if you get something from somebody who is sanctioned by the U.S. as a Russian agent.”

Nunes and his attorneys claim that NBCUniversal knew that he gave the Derkach package to the FBI, but Maddow sought to defame him with her comments about it. Thus Castel’s ruling states Nunes can proceed with his suit and attempt to prove Maddow acted with “actual malice.”

“MSNBC and Maddow had no source that had told them prior to publication of the Statements that Plaintiff had ‘refused’ to turn over the Derkach package to the FBI,” the complaint says It continues to state Maddow “provided no source for the defamatory Statements about Plaintiff because, in truth, Maddow fabricated the Statements, including the story that Plaintiff ‘refused’ to turn over the package to the FBI.”

The lawsuit comes as Nunes has attempted to sue several other media outlets and platforms for libel in recent years, though those legal efforts wound up getting tossed out on multiple occasions.