Part III: Taking the Fifth

Devin Nunes, Steven Biss, and the Laptop of MAGA Secrets

Editor’s note: This investigation was originally published in April, when Telos News launched and before most of you had subscribed. I’ve taken it down and restructured it as a miniseries for subscribers to binge on through the holidays. As you’ll see, the themes are related to what you’ve been reading in the Bamboo Series, and together the two series will help you understand the birth of this Substack—and where it’s headed in 2026. In this email is Part III. The final installment of the Bamboo Series will land after this interlude and before the end of the year. Enjoy! — Ryan

III. Taking the Fifth

As Nunes and Biss’s sensationalistic lawsuits on behalf of famous MAGA clients gained notoriety on the right, business from small-time plaintiffs started booming.

Steven Scott Biss was one of the strangest and most unpleasant people I have ever encountered. He’s from Canada but became a hardcore America Firster and Trump devotee. He seemed to spend most mornings posting links to Breitbart and The Federalist on Truth Social. There were rumors that his lawsuits were funded by mysterious right-wing benefactors. But he seemed to have little assistance with his filings, appeared to be constantly overwhelmed by the number of cases he had, and often overlooked or abandoned potentially promising avenues of strategy in his big cases.

Biss also had a checkered past.