Rep. Devin Nunes is right to threaten lawsuits against media outlets who publish "fake news" about him alleging wrongdoing with a former high-ranking Ukraine official, Rep. Lee Zeldin said Monday.
"You have an indicted criminal defendant peddling hearsay laundered through his attorney," the New York Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "Nunes is a great patriot. When he says the story is false and is calling it fake news I believe Devin."
According to reports, a lawyer for Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, claimed to CNN that Nunes had met with former Ukrainian prosecutor general Victor Shokin last December in an attempt to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.
"(Lev) Parnas was inviting members of the media to lay on an electric fence," he added about another of Giuliani's associates. "They took the bait and ran with a story they should be racing to retract right now."
Nunes, Zeldin added, has been "calling out" what he sees for years, and there may not be many who like the way he has been "so candidly and brutally honest."
"He is someone who is supportive of the president," said Zeldin of Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. "He holds (Chairman) Adam Schiff accountable whenever Schiff lies. If the media is not saying something that's accurate, Devin Nunes will call it out for what it is. For that, he has a big target on his back."
Meanwhile, "it's a party" behind closed doors with Democrats while talking about impeaching President Donald Trump, said Zeldin.
Zeldin also commented about reports that an FBI lawyer altered documents used to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to investigate a 2016 Trump campaign aide, saying that he does believe misconduct happened.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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