It's unclear what Nunes would sue the publications for. If he sues for defamation, he would have to prove as a public official that the outlets acted with actual malice and reckless disregard for the truth.

However, both publications reported on statements that Parnas’ attorneys released and neither issued any claims regarding the truth of the statements.

What he's saying: Nunes said the reports are false but would not answer a direct question from Fox's Maria Bartiromo about whether he met with Shokin in 2018.

"I really want to answer all of these questions, and I promise you I absolutely will come back on the show and answer these questions. But because there is criminal activity here, we're working with the appropriate law enforcement agencies, we are going to file all this," Nunes said.

"Everyone’s going to know the truth, everybody is going to know all the facts, but I think you can understand that I can’t compete by trying to debate this out with the public media when 90% of the media are totally corrupt," he continued.