This is Some Bull, Really

I know I’ve been remiss in covering this, and I’m not going to get into the merits of a defamation claim brought by a public official (short version: good luck with that), but.

For some time, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has been aggrieved by, well, a Twitter cow.

Devin Nunes’ Cow is a Twitter parody account, and for awhile it had a few hundred followers. Then the Congressman sued the Cow, Twitter, another parody account, and a political consultant, for defamation and asked for at least $250,000,000. (As an aside, if you’ve got some time, read the whole complaint. Read the footnotes too. Some of it is midly NSFW, and I have to warn you about NSFW graphics in court-filed documents because here we are.)

It’s all kind of golden, but also signed by an apparently solo practitioner with an Earthlink email address which is, to say the least, not the type of lawyer who typically handles cases on behalf of members of Congress, which probably says more about the case itself than the lawyer.)

The defamation suit remains pending but has backfired in spectacular fashion, as Devin’s Cow now has 636,000 followers, almost as many as Devin Nunes himself (this is the Streisand effect in action). and Devin Proper now has a whole lot of unflattering press. Happy to add to that.

This case has come back into the public view this week, because Atty. Earthlink sent this rather incredible cease-and-desist letter(to Nunes’ former opponent, also a prosecutor):

As you well know, for over two years, Mr. Nunes has been maliciously harassed,
stalked, bullied online, threatened and egregiously defamed on Twitter by the user or
users who post day and night, through the anonymous Twitter account, @DevinCow.
[https://twitter.com/DevinCow].

Again, if you have a minute, take a look. It’s really something.

There’s a lot to be said here about free speech; about the chilling effect of suing media companies and parodists for millions of dollars in lawsuits that are likely to go nowhere but still cost money and aggravation to defend; about politicians with thin skin. But that’s for another day; for now, perhaps, I’ll leave you with the thought that if you’re presented with a case like this, maybe think long and hard about what taking the case might do to your own professional reputation. Even if it’s not per se frivolous, and even if you can find a reason to do this other than harassment or embarrassment , I don’t buy that any publicity is good publicity. Even if you’re suing a Twitter cow on behalf of a Congressman. Perhaps, especially if you’re suing a Twitter cow on behalf of a Congressman. (I mean, this is Wisconsin, we like our cows here.)