Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) was widely mocked on Monday after Fox News reported he was suing his hometown newspaper for $150 million over a story titled, “A yacht, cocaine, prostitutes: Winery partly owned by Nunes sued after fundraiser event.”
One particularly embarrassing error in the lawsuit was discovered by LA Times national correspondent Matt Pearce.
In a section of the lawsuit discussing a tweet by former Fresno Bee reporter Mackenzie Mays, the authors made a major mistake.
The lawsuit includes a picture of the tweet, showing three words bolded. The accompanying text reads, "In her tweet, Mays chose to emphasize the words "woman", "Devin" and "cocaine".
The problem is, Twitter does not allow a user to emphasize words with bolding. It seems Nunes' lawyers did a keyword search for those terms, then took a picture of the response with their keywords bolded.
Indeed, the original tweet by Mays did not included bolding of the words as the lawsuit claimed.
bing bong https://t.co/WMQO8yWuEF— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@Matt Pearce 🦅) 1554775517.0
Pearce's analysis was retweeted by the account Devin Nunes' cow, which has 634,000 followers.
Here is what some people were saying about the competence of Nunes' legal team.
OMG Devin Nunes lawyers are just as stupid as he is 😂😂😂 https://t.co/Y3waisUJmF— Polly Sigh (@Polly Sigh) 1554780420.0
Nunes' genius extends to the selection of his legal team https://t.co/MAfNtxDHjH— Tommy Vietor (@Tommy Vietor) 1554777369.0
it’s astonishing the man can brush his teeth without accidentally getting a mousetrap stuck to his tongue https://t.co/bTM8RuhE7z— kilgore trout (@kilgore trout) 1554775599.0
This is marvelous. You can’t bold words in your tweets. The only way to get this effect is to search for those keyw… https://t.co/s7D42q6ass— Helen Kennedy (@Helen Kennedy) 1554780407.0
So @DevinNunes and his lawyers are too stupid to know you can't bld words in your tweets? https://t.co/O0f0y1KG2R— Isobel Carr (@Isobel Carr) 1554779097.0
FFS...before you file a lawsuit, DO YOUR HOMEWORK This is hysterical but also shows their desperation. To say this… https://t.co/6HasCrVJLT— em (@em) 1554777628.0
This is what happens when people who don't know how to internet attempt to internet. Gotta be careful with the Twi… https://t.co/eGV3TYxv2a— Just Jackie, I guess (@Just Jackie, I guess) 1554780127.0
@DevinNunes and his lawyer continue to impress. This might be the stupidest thing to happen so far in 2019. https://t.co/88u1WXyrvC— mdDoogie3 🏠 (@mdDoogie3 🏠) 1554776726.0
lawyers, regardless of age, are basically honorary boomers https://t.co/axmfE8y68i— Kevin (@Kevin) 1554780918.0
It is generally advisable when suing someone because of twitter, to hire lawyers that understand twitter. https://t.co/0811C6fGId— Connor 🌐 (@Connor 🌐) 1554777590.0
Also, this is becoming the clearest exercise yet in the Streisand Effect. I had never heard of this story about the… https://t.co/CT13JF9V1y— Elite Strike Force Computer (@Elite Strike Force Computer) 1554778195.0
Sometimes I wonder if I’m smart enough to go to law school, but then I see something like this https://t.co/0ow8MylBn2— tay (@tay) 1554777156.0
