California Governor Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit against Fox News on Friday, claiming the conservative network had defamed him by making false statements regarding a phone conversation with President Donald Trump. Newsom is seeking damages of at least $787 million.
In a tweet announcing his lawsuit, the Democrat filed it in Delaware’s Superior Court, where Fox News is incorporated. Newsom wrote, “No more lies.”
In April 2023, Fox Corp., Fox News, and other Fox cable networks agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems to settle a Delaware lawsuit alleging they defamed Dominion by falsely claiming its machines swayed the 2020 presidential election outcome against Trump. The monetary damages Newsom is seeking nearly exactly match that settlement.
The main focus of Newsom’s lawsuit is Jesse Waters, a Fox News anchor, who claimed that Newsom had lied about not speaking with Trump in early June.
Fox News allegedly had an incentive to “lie and distort on behalf of the President,” according to the lawsuit. Since the California National Guard sent troops and Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions, Trump and the governor have been at odds.
Fox is also accused in the civil complaint of having “significant ill will towards Governor Newsom because he is an articulate voice fighting the radical Fox News agenda and a strong champion of progressive values.”
“If Fox News retracts the claim that he lied when speaking about President Trump not calling him on June 9,” Newsom’s attorneys wrote in a letter to Fox News on Friday, saying that he is willing to voluntarily dismiss his lawsuit.
In addition, the letter requests that Watters and Fox News issue a “formal on-air apology” in return for the complaint being dropped.
“Fox News should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case — if it wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf,” Newsom said in a statement.
The governor stated, “I think the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet.” “I will continue to oppose Fox’s propaganda machine until they are prepared to be honest.”
“Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him,” Fox News said in a statement.
The network declared, “We will vigorously defend this case and look forward to it being dismissed.”
According to the lawsuit, the governor and Trump had a 16-minute phone conversation late on June 6 or early on June 7, depending on the time zone.
The lawsuit claims that while “the contents of that conversation are not germane to this matter,” President Trump never brought up the protests that had started that day in Los Angeles or brought up the National Guard.
“And President Trump diverted the conversation away from the Los Angeles situation when Governor Newsom tried to bring it up.”
Days later, on June 10, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he had last spoken to Newsom “a day ago,” according to the lawsuit.
He had called the governor “to tell him, got to do a better job, he’s doing a bad job,” the president claimed. resulting in numerous deaths as well as numerous potential deaths.
Newsom swiftly denied that there had been a call that day, much less one that addressed the circumstances in Los Angeles, after hearing Trump’s assertion.
“No call was made. Newsom posted on the social media platform X, saying, “Not even a voicemail.”
According to the lawsuit, Watters played an edited clip of Trump during an episode of “Jesse Watters Primetime” on the evening of June 10 that eliminated the president’s assertion that he spoke with Newsom “a day ago.”
Watters went on to say that Newsom had denied receiving a call.
Watters added that John Roberts of Fox News had access to Trump’s call logs, which revealed that the governor and president had last spoken on June 6 or 7.
“Why would Newsom fabricate that he never received a call from Trump?” Watters enquired. “What made him do that?”
Watters’ show featured a chyron that read, “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call.”
“Fox News chose to defame Governor Newsom, branding him a liar, rather than leave the matter alone, or simply provide the facts,” the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit claims that Fox News wilfully misrepresented the facts while acknowledging that President Trump was mistaken in order to gain the president’s favour.
