GOP congressman Devin Nunes’ attorney sent a letter demanding that his former Democratic rival immediately delete “malicious” tweets sent from an anonymous “Devin Nunes’ Cow” account.
Nunes’ lawyer, Steven Biss, sent a letter of “grave import and enormous consequence,” pushing Andrew Janz of the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office to cease and desist use of a parody Twitter account Janz has repeatedly denied controlling.
Biss told the Democratic prosecutor, who unsuccessfully ran for Nunes’ congressional seat in 2018, to stop “coordinating, instigating, aiding and abetting” the @DevinCow account which has amassed more than 630,000 Twitter followers.
The cow parody account gained hundreds of thousands of followers just hours after Fox News announced in April that Nunes had filed a defamation lawsuit against Twitter in Virginia.
A second account, “Devin Nunes’ Mom,” was also targeted by the California congressman and accused of cyberbullying.
Biss’ October letter cited California state laws that prevent the use of electronic devices to harass someone to the extent they fear for their safety.
The “Devin Nunes’ Cow,” account has continued to revel in the legal threats, responding to Janz’s announcement of the potential lawsuit saying, “This is getting ridiculous.”
This is getting ridiculous.🐮 https://t.co/cUoil66p1p
— Devin Nunes’ cow 🐮 (@DevinCow) November 5, 2019
The October 11 letter from Biss argues that Janz, whose lawyer has rejected any connection between his client and the account, is “legally, ethically and morally responsible to act now.”
“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,” Biss continued. “This behavior is completely incompatible with your ethical and legal duties as a Fresno County Deputy District Attorney.”
[READ: Legal Fund For The Cow’s Legal Defense Fund]
Biss cited Janz’s connection to a PAC offering to provide a legal defense fund for the cow account and a December 2018 “Voter Protection Project” as evidence that the Fresno County Democrat is in control of the parody account.
Janz shared The Fresno Bee article Tuesday highlighting the letter from Nunes attorney, remarking, “Devin Nunes is threatening to sue me. Doesn’t he have anything better to do with his time?”
Nunes has gained nationwide attention for his frequent national TV appearances defending President Trump from impeachment and railing against House Democrats as corrupt.
Last week, Trump was mocked for misspelling the Republican congressman’s surname in a now-deleted tweet promoting a book about Nunes.
“A great new book just out, ‘The Plot Against the President. The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunez Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History.’ Shows very bad and corrupt people on the other side. Check it out!” Trump tweeted on October 29.
Despite the accusations and legal threats from Nunes’ attorney, Janz attorney Andrew Harris Werbrock has insisted the GOP congressman is simply trying to silence and “punish his political opponents.”
“[Janz] does not control the account, or the content of its communications, and cannot cause it to issue a retraction or an apology, or to dissolve,” Werbrock wrote. “Second, even if he could cause the account to issue a retraction, he would not, as your letter does not state any valid basis for doing so.”‘