Newly unsealed court files in Devin Nunes’ family farm lawsuit target workers’ citizenship
Newly unsealed court documents shed light on a central question in two defamation lawsuits Rep. Devin Nunes and his family members filed against a national magazine: Were any workers at the family’s Iowa dairy undocumented immigrants?
The new documents do not resolve the question, but they reveal why attorneys for Esquire Magazine maintain a 2018 story by journalist Ryan Lizza accurately described the likelihood that the dairy owned by Nunes’ family employed undocumented labor.
Nunes and his family members — his brother, father and their farm — are suing the journalist and Esquire parent company Hearst in two separate cases over the 2018 story that ran under the headline “Devin Nunes’ family farm is hiding a politically explosive secret.”
Nunes’ family claims the story defamed them by implying they hired undocumented workers. The congressman alleged the story defamed him as part of a conspiracy to damage his successful reelection campaign.
A federal judge last year dismissed Rep. Nunes’ lawsuit, finding the story did not defame him. An appeals court this month affirmed the story did not defame Nunes, but reopened a part of the case allowing the congressman to sue over a social media post that drew attention to the story.
The family lawsuit is proceeding in the Iowa court, where arguments focus on whether the farm knowingly or unknowingly employed undocumented people.
Some of the information cited in court comes directly from the Social Security Administration. It submitted a chart as well as letters it sent to the farm about its employees’ Social Security numbers as evidence for the trial.
Hearst attorneys cite two types of employee records obtained through discovery from the Nunes family’s NuStar Farms to argue at least some of the workers were undocumented.
Employee records cited in court records show that Social Security numbers provided for almost 80% of the 330 workers on the Nunes’ farm did not match the Social Security Administration’s records. The records pertain to people who worked at the farm over a period of years. Hearst attorneys contend that so-called no-match letters show some of the workers’ Social Security numbers are fake, although no-match reports also can result from mistakes such as typographical errors.
And, according to other documents, one employee worked with a tax form only available to people granted immigration amnesty during the Reagan administration. The magazine’s attorneys wrote that the man is almost three years too young to be eligible for that status.
The documents had been available in a redacted form through public databases. A law professor at UCLA who is not involved in the case moved to have the motions unsealed. The professor, Eugene Volokh, has been following Nunes’ lawsuits since the congressman in 2019 began suing news media and social media companies, as well as an anonymous Twitter user who writes a satirical account called Devin Nunes’ cow. The records were unsealed on Sept. 16.
Dairy worker depositions
The documents open a window on tense exchanges in court hearings.
Six employees whose names and Social Security numbers did not line up, according to federal records, were asked to testify by Hearst’s attorneys about their work authorization status.
During one worker’s deposition, Nunes family attorney Steven Biss halted proceedings for two hours of private discussions after the employee’s attorney had encouraged his client to plead the fifth about his work authorization forms. Biss was not representing the employee.
The deposition ended with the witness’ attorney announcing that he had been fired and would not represent any other employees in the case, Hearst’s attorneys wrote in one of the unsealed documents.
The judge, Mark A. Roberts, said in a hearing following the deposition that the interruption and firing were “troubling.” He appointed independent counsel for the employees in June because it was possible that they may not understand the legal jeopardy they could face if they either lie on the stand or are not documented.
The attorney who represented the employees declined to comment. Lizza declined to comment. Two of his and Hearst’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment. Three lawyers, including Biss, who represented NuStar Farms over the course of litigation did not respond to requests for comment.
Nunes attorney obtained interview recordings
The unsealed files also show Biss, Nunes’ attorney, has obtained recordings of Lizza’s interviews. Biss used excerpts from the material to argue Lizza misrepresented his reporting.
Biss quoted one part of Lizza’s audio recordings in which a source said that they did not know if farmworkers they sent to work for NuStar Farms were “legal or not.”
Biss also pulled a quote from Lizza’s recordings in which a source said they did not know whether other workers were undocumented. Lizza had written that the source did not want to guess the workers’ status.
In the magazine article, Lizza quoted someone who identified himself as an undocumented immigrant who had worked at the farm, another source who said he directed undocumented laborers to jobs at the Nunes family farm and other sources who said the Iowa dairy community depends on undocumented labor almost as a rule. The Nunes family disputes those points.
Biss also represents Rep. Nunes, R-Tulare, in the congressman’s parallel case against Lizza. That is one of 10 lawsuits Rep. Nunes has filed against people and organizations that he claims have defamed him since 2019. Most of the defendants in these cases have been dismissed or dropped. Nunes has appealed several decisions.
A spokesman for the congressman did not respond to a request for comment.
Lizza’s and Hearst’s attorneys have requested appearances from a representative of the firm which the farm hired to do an audit after the story was published, according to recent court filings, and further information on who is paying for the lawsuit.
This story was originally published September 25, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
