Attorneys for Republican Devin Nunes dropped a Tulare County-filed lawsuit against a group of activists he accused of smearing his reputation after they sought to force the politician to stop using “farmer” as his occupation on the 2018 ballot.

The now scuttled lawsuit alleged that retired Dinuba farmer Paul Buxman along with Los Angeles-based activist Michael J. Seeley, Central Valley-based political activist Daniel O’Connell and Fresno State librarian Hope Nisly conspired with liberal political action committee Campaign for Accountability, Inc. to smear Nunes' reputation and harm his business activities.

Brian Whelan, who represented Buxman and the other defendants, said in a statement his clients were vindicated in the meritless lawsuit.

Democrat Phil Arballo who is running against Nunes in CA-22 released the following statement in response to the disclosure.

“Devin Nunes may have dropped one of his lawsuits after widespread backlash from this community but his outrageous intimidation tactics will not be forgotten. He used his position to stifle free speech and stoke fear in anyone who would oppose him. But we stood together, we didn’t back down and we refused to be silenced. Devin’s many years living high off the hog in Washington clearly made him forget the strength of our backbone here in the Central Valley.” However, Nunes' Central Valley-based attorney, Peter Kapetan, argued the Tulare County lawsuit was dropped so some of the allegations could be incorporated into a $9.9 million racketeering lawsuit Nunes' legal team filed on Wednesday in Virginia against Fusion GPS and Campaign for Accountability, Inc.

A search of that lawsuit, though, found no mention of the farmer smear or Buxman, O’Connell or Nisly.

Seeley, though, was accused of conspiring with Campaign for Accountability and Fusion GPS to file public records requests to access email sent by Nunes’ wife, Elizabeth, who is a teacher at Sundale School. Seeley eventually published those emails on Scribd, an online document web site.

Nunes, a Tulare native, alleges the public records request was just one part of a concerted effort by Fusion GPS and the Campaign for Accountability, Inc. to "intimidate, harass, threaten, influence, interfere with, impede, and ultimately to derail” his investigation into improper government surveillance of the 2016 Trump campaign.

Fusion GPS is a Washington, D.C.-based political research firm originally hired by Republican opponents of Donald Trump during the 2016 GOP primary to research the then candidate. After Trump secured the nomination, Fusion GPS was hired by the Clinton campaign to continue the research.

Eventually, Fusion GPS came up with the Steele Dossier, which reported rumors that Trump had ties to Russian business and government interests.

Nunes, who served on Trump’s presidential transition team, made international headlines in 2018 after releasing a now-debunked controversial four-page memo alleging the FBI relied on politically biased information to get a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant on a Trump adviser in the early phases of the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.

The FBI and other law-enforcement agencies criticized the Nunes memo as flawed and misleading and urged it not be released.

Nunes has filed several other lawsuits this year, including cases against Twitter, McClatchy and a political consultant who started a parody Twitter account called Devin Nunes’ cow.

James Ward covers entertainment, news, sports and lifestyles for the Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register. Follow him on Twitter. Get alerts and keep up on all things Tulare County for as little as $1 a month. Subscribe today.