Devin Nunes emulates Trump to get rid of critics, a whistleblower report reveals | Opinion
Last year former San Joaquin Valley congressman Devin Nunes said a New York prosecutor's fraud case against Donald Trump reeked of "corruption."
The Tulare County resident and former chairman of the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee claimed the New York case reflected a "police state" in America under Democratic control.
Now Nunes himself is facing complaints that he is running Trump's social media company with an iron fist — and doing it poorly.
Nunes was the longtime Republican congressman representing Tulare County and parts of Fresno County, including Clovis. In late 2021, he announced he would leave the House of Representatives to take a post with Trump's social media firm.
During his time in office, Nunes was infamous for making outlandish statements, like how environmentalists were communists wanting to control water use by Valley farmers.
Fast forward to this month: As reported by the online news site ProPublica, several top executives at Trump Media and Technology Group were forced out when a whistleblower report accused Nunes of mismanagement. Nunes is the CEO of Trump Media, the company Trump created to have a social media presence after the then Twitter (now called X) and Facebook had banned him following the Jan. 6, 2021 rioting at the U.S. Capitol.
"Several people involved with Trump Media believe the ousters are retaliation following what they describe as an anonymous 'whistleblower' complaint regarding Nunes that went to the company's board of directors," ProPublica reported.
The report said that Nunes has kept Trump Media understaffed, and that he blocked the hiring of American workers. ProPublica said online profiles and an invoice reveal six people in the Balkans working for Trump Media in software engineering and customer support.
Truth Social says on its homepage that it is "Proudly made in the United States of America."
The whistleblower report also accused Nunes of dishonesty, and of hiring loyal advisers for jobs for which they were unqualified.
Trump Media and Nunes did not respond to ProPublica's questions. A company lawyer earlier had blamed ProPublica for publishing "hit pieces" on the firm, but did not specify what was inaccurate in the story about the executives being ousted.
Trump fraud case
The fraud case against Trump keyed around him allegedly paying a porn star to stay quiet during the 2016 presidential campaign and not reveal his sexual encounter with her. The overarching issue in the case was Trump falsifying business records to hide the payment.
A grand jury reviewed the prosecution's initial claims and brought an indictment. Nunes ran to Trump's defense immediately afterward by claiming such prosecution was rigged by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the longtime San Francisco Democrat, and one of that party's main contributors, George Soros.
"This latest total corruption in Manhattan is the uncharted territory of a police state," Nunes said on a Fresno radio show. "For lack of a better word, it is a police state."
Regardless of Nunes' hyperbole, a jury of New York residents later heard the case and found Trump guilty on all 34 counts. He was the first former president to be convicted of a crime. Sentencing is to occur in late November, after the presidential election.
Nunes in a bad light
The whistleblower report paints a damning image of Nunes in his role as CEO of Trump Media.
"Mr. Nunes has consistently lied, targeted employees, and mishandled company resources by placing critical functions in the hands of unqualified members of his inner circle," the report says, according to ProPublica.
Certainly, Nunes engaged in untruths a year ago when he disparaged the indictment brought against the former president. How ironic that today Nunes is accused of the same strong-arm tactics he once railed against.
