Law and Crime: “A federal judge the District of Maryland on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit that Rep. Devin Nunes‘s senior aide Derek Harvey filed against CNN, former Rudy Giuliani business associate Lev Parnas, and Parnas’s lawyer Joseph Bondy. Judge Richard Bennett, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that the defamation action failed to state a claim against CNN. As to Parnas and Bondy, the judge said the court lacked personal jurisdiction given Maryland state law.”
“The lawsuit, filed in Maryland’s U.S. District Court, stemmed from a November CNN report that Parnas was prepared to provide Congress with testimony as part of Donald Trump’s first impeachment. Parnas, CNN said, would testify, in effect, that Nunes met with former Ukrainian prosecutor Victor Shokin ‘to discuss digging up dirt of Joe Biden.’ In his original complaint, Harvey alleged that the defendants falsely accused him of participating in an effort to aid and abet the commission of criminal, unethical, and dishonest conduct. He sought punitive damages and an order prohibiting the defendants from continuing to repeat false claims on the basis that they constituted defamation and false light invasion of privacy. CNN, Bondy, and Parnas all promptly moved to have the suit dismissed.”