Esquire Sheds Devin Nunes’ Defamation Suit Over Iowa Farm Story

Former US Representative Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) couldn’t make a case that Hearst Magazine Media Inc. and a writer for Esquire Magazine defamed him in an article about an Iowa farm owned by his family.

Nunes alleged that the article conveyed a “defamatory gist and false implication” that he conspired with others, including his family and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), to conceal a “politically explosive secret"—that NuStar Farms LLC knowingly employs undocumented labor.

Nunes’ defamation-by-implication claim failed because there was no showing that Hearst or reporter Ryan Lizza intended to convey a defamatory statement, Judge C.J. Williams of the US District Court for the Northern District of Iowa ruled Tuesday. The article states that Nunes has no financial interest in the Iowa farm and doesn’t say he’s involved with the farm in any other way, Williams said.

The court also dismissed defamation claims by NuStar Farms and its owners—Nunes’ father and brother, Anthony Nunes Jr. and Anthony Nunes III—because they failed to show a genuine issue of material fact over whether anything was actually false, Williams said.

“The assertion that NuStar knowingly used undocumented labor is substantially, objectively true. Thus, a reasonable jury could not find in favor of plaintiffs on this element,” Williams said.

On Sept. 30, 2018, Esquire.com published an article written by Lizza about NuStar Farms, with the headline: “Devin Nunes’s Family Farm is Hiding a Politically Explosive Secret.” The article was later printed in the November 2018 print copy of Esquire.

The article begins by stating “Devin Nunes has a secret,” and later says: “The Nunes family dairy of political lore—the one where his brother and parents work—isn’t in California.”

The article “detailed interviews in which two sources having firsthand knowledge, which plaintiffs dispute, informed Lizza that NuStar Farms relies on undocumented labor and that one source had taken ‘illegal people’ to NuStar Farms” and asserted “that the farm was aware of” the workers’ status, the court said.

The court previously dismissed Nunes’ claims on Aug. 5, 2020, and the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit reversed in part, reinstating his claim for defamation by implication.

McGinn Springer & Noethe PLC and Steven Scott Biss in Charlottesville, Va., represented NuStar and the Nuneses. Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP and in-house counsel for Hearst represnted Hearst and Lizza.

The cases are Nunes v. Lizza, N.D. Iowa, No. 19-cv-4063, 4/25/23 and Nunes v. Lizza, N.D. Iowa, No. 20-cv-4003, 4/25/23.