House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes filed a $150 million lawsuit against The McClatchy Company and others Monday in a Virginia state court, alleging that one of the media company’s reporters conspired with a political operative to derail his oversight work into the Hillary Clinton campaign and Russian election interference, Fox News reports. The suit came a day after the California Republican said he would send eight criminal referrals to the Justice Department for federal authorities who allegedly committed surveillance abuses during the Russia probe and made false statements to Congress. Nunes filed a similar $250 million lawsuit in March alleging defamation against Twitter and one of its users, Republican consultant Liz Mair. He also named Mair as a co-defendant in Monday’s complaint, claiming this time that she conspired with McClatchy reporter MacKenzie Mays to spread a variety of alleged untruths—including that Nunes “was involved with cocaine and underage prostitutes” during a 2015 yacht party involving “25 of the Napa Valley-based [Alpha Omega Winery]’s top investors, all men—[who] were openly using what appeared to be cocaine and ‘drawing straws’ for which sex worker to hire.” The suit says Mays tweeted the article, mentioning Nunes in the same sentence as “cocaine and underage sex workers.”
