Outside the court building in Virginia where Nunes v. Twitter dismissal hearing will be heard this morning. It’s the last in a series of cases to be heard by Judge John Marshall starting at 9:30 a.m.
No cell phones allowed out in the courtroom (or even in the courthouse, for the general public). So I’ll be taking notes inside and tweeting any noteworthy details that don’t end up in the story afterwards.
We’re two hours in and no ruling yet, but here’s some details from@the courtroom. Twitter and Mair have multiple lawyers in the room against Biss by himself, no lawyers at the table representing @DevinCow or @NunesAlt.
There are about 20 people in the courtroom that are supporting @DevinCow, with shirts cow stuffed animals and cow ears. No Nunes, despite Breitbart reports that he should be here.
Judge John Marshall has mostly sat back and listened to arguments, he did express some interest in Biss refuting Twitter’s point that Nunes agreed to a contract to sue Twitter in California by having a Twitter account.
@DevinNunes@Twitter@DevinCow@NunesAlt@LizMair For those asking for pictures, I wasn't allowed to take any inside in the courtroom or even the courthouse, but here's one I got outside the court of some @DevinCow supporters talking. They had shirts specific to the Cow on:
@DevinNunes@Twitter@DevinCow@NunesAlt@LizMair So, as my editor goes through my way too long story, some more details that didn't make it in, for those intensely interested. Twitter said Nunes was subject to Twitter terms because he has two Twitter accounts, Nunes' lawyer corrected them and says he has four.
@DevinNunes@Twitter@DevinCow@NunesAlt@LizMair Nunes' lawyer (Biss) was demonstrating that Twitter's filings could not be considered evidence, pointing out that there could be inaccuracies, FWIW.
@DevinNunes@Twitter@DevinCow@NunesAlt@LizMair Nunes' lawyer had a lot of metaphors for Twitter. He compared them to giving an automobile or a gun to Mair and the parody accounts, a weapon they then used against Nunes, so Twitter was responsible for negligence.
@DevinNunes@Twitter@DevinCow@NunesAlt@LizMair@DevinNunesMom Nunes' lawyer, Steven Biss: "I don't want to say she was fleeing, but she fled to Connecticut."
Judge Marshall: Told him it was uncalled for to make unproven allegations like that.
Biss: "That's why I said I didn't want to say it."
Courtroom full of @DevinCow supporters laughed.
Oh, and last thing that I remembered while driving home: Judge said he had never heard of Nunes before this lawsuit came on his desk.
Story link has been updated to reflect the full version. Have a great weekend everyone, thanks for following along! Please support local journalism. fresnobee.com/news/local/art…
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Where @DevinNunes lawsuits currently stand, a thread. There are six active lawsuits right now and there are a lot of more minor developments in court cases that I don't write full stories on, so figured I could give those interested an update here.
Biss didn't respond to my request for comment on that story, but later told Breitbart that he and Nunes plan to continue suing Twitter on that case for issues besides negligence. Twitter seemed to believe it was being taken off as a defendant, per the judge's order.
From today’s hearing in Nunes v. Twitter: Devin Nunes’ attorney says he’s at ‘dead end’ in quest to reveal identity of @DevinCowfresnobee.com/news/politics-…
Twitter’s argument for dismissing Devin Nunes’ lawsuit is Section 230, a federal law that says social media companies are not liable for things third parties post on their platforms. Here’s how that went: fresnobee.com/article2434884…
You might remember that Trump recently issued an executive order that tried to peel back Section 230. This Virginia judge weighed in on that, saying exec order has no effect on actually changing a law enacted by Congress. fresnobee.com/article2434884…
NEW: Devin Nunes’ lawyer is facing the prospect of sanctions after two recent warnings from judges, a rare occurrence from the bench, according to an ethics lawyer: fresnobee.com/news/local/art…
Nunes and his lawyer, Steven Biss, were issued a rare warning in their lawsuit against Fusion GPS, when a judge dismissed it earlier this year and told them to follow federal rules if they file an amended complaint. fresnobee.com/news/local/art…
Nunes and Biss did file another complaint, and last week Fusion GPS's lawyers called on the judge to issue sanctions against them. That's the most recent of four requests in 2020 to sanction Biss. Not all of those cases are Nunes related. fresnobee.com/news/local/art…
After reviewing hundreds of pages of court documents, we found Biss has a history of being accused of using the courts to harass, intimidate and overwhelm his opponents. sacbee.com/news/californi…
Happy (almost) new year everyone! In honor of the end of this year, I wanted to give a thread summary of the state of Devin Nunes' lawsuits, both for those who don't know exactly what's going on and those who could use a refresher.
It started in March with Nunes suing @Twitter@DevinCow@NunesAlt and @LizMair for defamation. Mair is a Republican strategist who was working against Nunes' campaign in 2018, the other two are parody accounts (relatively unknown before the lawsuit) fresnobee.com/news/politics-…
@Twitter@DevinCow@NunesAlt@LizMair Twitter et al tried to argue that Virginia, where Nunes had filed the suit with his lawyer, Steven Biss, was the improper venue. They failed, with the Virginia judge saying the suit could go forward in his Richmond court. fresnobee.com/news/local/art…
There are some suspicions that Nunes or someone close to him was running an anonymous Twitter account to defend him that was deleted sometime last night (it's possible Twitter suspended it, unclear right now) a la Mitt Romney with Pierre Delecto. A thread.
Nunes' lawyer, Steven Biss, said in an August court hearing that Nunes actually has four Twitter accounts, not just two as Twitter had asserted in court. So we know Nunes has more Twitter accounts than just his public ones, or at least that he did in August.
Enter @JohnnyCarsons1, which frequently tweeted at the @DevinCow and @NunesAlt accounts, as well as other Nunes critics, always defending him. The language was not bot-like and wasn't trolling, but it was unrelenting defense of everything Nunes was doing.