LOS ANGELES, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- A California judge has ruled that the pro-Trump congressman Devin Nunes can still call himself a farmer during midterm elections in November, according to local reports on Thursday.
The decision was made Wednesday by Allen Sumner, a Superior Court judge in Sacramento, the capital city of the U.S. State of California, according to local newspaper Fresno Bee.
The reports said that the legal action was filed earlier this month on behalf of a local fruit farmer Paul Buxman, who claimed that Nunes, a U.S. Representative from California, had not received any income from farming for at least 10 years and should therefore return to farming or refrain from calling himself a farmer on the ballot.
Since a full summary of the court proceedings was not yet publicly available, the reason why Judge Sumner denied the claim is unclear.
As a close supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump, Nunes used to be described by the former Trump campaign CEO and Chief Strategist Steve Bannon as the president's second-strongest ally in Congress.
Nunes is chairman of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and thus played a key role in an investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
In February, he released the Nunes memo, alleging a Federal Bureau of Investigation conspiracy against Trump.
A story of ABC 30 news channel said that being listed with a farmer designation could help Nunes appeal to voters in agriculture-heavy districts and traditional Republican strongholds in California.
The Democratic group Fight Back California organized and paid for the lawsuit against Nunes, who has been a U.S. Representative since 2003, the report said, adding that the group would appeal Sumner's decision.
