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\"The Fresno Bee has worked closely with radical left-wing groups to promote numerous fake news stories about me,\" he says in the ad, which is over two minutes long and is airing on radio and TV outlets.

Calling the publication's staff “the Bee’s band of creeping correspondents,” Dunes criticized recent reporting on a winery in which he's an investor, describing the articles as a “textbook example of fake news.”

The Fresno Bee published an editorial in response to the ad, and Joe Kieta, editor of the Fresno Bee, defended the paper's reporting in a statement to ABC News.

\"Just because Nunes doesn’t want the story told does not make it 'false,'\" Kieta said in the statement. \"For all his complaints about 'fake news,' Rep. Nunes has failed to identify a single factual error in our work — while making numerous false statements himself.\"

On Thursday, the Bee published an article detailing Nunes’ recent spending out of the leadership PAC, drawing on FEC filings and reporting by watchdog groups.

In a statement to ABC News, Anthony Ratekin, Nunes’ Chief of Staff, characterized the reporting as \"another baseless attack\" on the congressman.

\"[The report] insinuates wrongdoing while actually showing that Rep. Nunes has broken no rules and properly reported all expenses for his fundraising events, much of whose income he gives to help elect other Republicans,\" Ratekin said.

By law, officeholders cannot use campaign funds for \"personal use.\" However, leadership PACs are less closely regulated; the Senate ethics committee does not claim jurisdiction over leadership PACs, and while House ethics rules state that the \"personal use\" ban applies to leadership PACs, lawmakers are rarely taken to task for lavish spending written off as fundraising expenditures.

A report published Thursday by the Campaign Legal Center and Issue One details the frequent use of Leadership PACs for luxury spending.

Leadership PACs such as New PAC were originally created by the FEC in 1978 in order to allow officeholders to make contributions to the campaigns of congressional colleagues. However, today, less than half of Leadership PAC money is used to fund political allies; instead, the scathing report concludes, \"leadership PACs look more like slush funds to subsidize officeholder luxury lifestyles.\"

The lion’s share of luxury expenditures are filed as \"fundraising expenses.\" The report’s authors noted that lavish trips to Disneyland and beach resorts were written off as ‘fundraising’ and \"perpetuate a never-ending fundraising cycle.\"

Members of Congress with leadership PACs frequent many of the same tony hangouts. Over the past five years, leadership PAC bills at the Capitol Hill Club, a Republican social club in Washington, have totaled at least $437,000, the report found.

Nunes’ July quarterly filing shows that between April and June of this year, he spent just shy of $20,000 at the club, including a $13,773 tab on June 4th.

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