On December 4, 2019, Nunes sued CNN for alleged defamation, seeking $435,350,000 in damages for their reporting of Parnas's lawyer's statement. The complaint stated, "CNN is the mother of fake news. It is the least trusted name. CNN is eroding the fabric of America, proselytizing, sowing distrust and disharmony. It must be held accountable." He claimed that the network has an "institutional hatred" for the Republican Party. The suit alleges that CNN reported that Nunes traveled to Vienna in December 2018, and met with Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor general, about investigating Joe Biden. The suit claims this is untrue and that Nunes was in Benghazi, followed by Malta. Before the filing of the CNN suit, an attorney representing McClatchy in Nunes's suit told "The Washington Post"'s Eric Wemple, "He's filing these lawsuits and threatening these lawsuits purely to try to chill speech about himself and matters of public interest." Federal judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the suit on February 19, 2021.