“If true, the allegation would mean that Nunes — the chief defender of Trump as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which has been holding impeachment hearings for several weeks — was himself involved in the very plot the committee is investigating.”

The lawyer for Lev Parnas, the Giuliani associate who was arrested at the airport, said “I can confirm that Victor Shokin told Lev Parnas that he had met with Nunes in Vienna in late 2018, and that Derek Harvey informed that they were investigating the activities of Joe and Hunter Biden related to Burisma.” (Derek Harvey is Nunes’ investigator.)

Nunes says the story is false and has threatened to sue those who published it.

The story does match up with the chronology of known Nunes activities. Congressional travel records show that Nunes and three aides, including Harvey, took a trip to Europe from Nov 30 to December 3 of last year.

My experience is that anyone who immediately threatens to sue is guilty of what he or she is accused of, and is trying to bully the accuser or to fight the case in the court of public opinion. Innocent people contact the sources with clear evidence that the story is incorrect, then ask for a public retraction and apology, preferably on the front page. If no satisfaction is forthcoming, then they file a lawsuit. (Without saying publicly “I’m going to do it.” The time for crowing is AFTER the verdict.) The fact that they have presented the evidence, asked for the retraction, and failed to get it, can multiply the settlement significantly, since such a sequence could be an indication of malicious intent. In fact, following that process is probably the surest way to establish malice. On the other hand, shouting “I’m going to sue” is not only useless in the legal process, but it is actually against the interest of the (allegedly) offended party, since doing so wastes a great chance to establish intent.

Weasels are like poor poker players – they aren’t aware of the “tells.” “I’m going to sue” is a tell. Think about people who say “I won’t dignify that with an answer.” They never seem to realize that that means “yes, I did it,” since if the answer were “no,” they would simply say “no”!