California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Fox News on Friday, seeking damages of at least $787 million from the conservative network for allegedly defaming him in misleading comments about a phone call with President Donald Trump.
“No more lies,” Newsom wrote in a tweet that announced his lawsuit, which the Democrat filed in Superior Court in Delaware, where Fox News is incorporated.
The monetary damages Newsom is seeking almost exactly match what Fox Corp. Fox News, and other Fox cable networks agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems in April 2023 to settle a Delaware lawsuit alleging they defamed Dominion by falsely claiming its machines swayed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election against Trump.
Newsom’s suit is focused on comments by Fox News anchor Jesse Waters, who had said Newsom lied about not having a call with Trump on a certain day in early June.
The suit alleges that Fox News was motivated to “lie and distort on behalf of the President,” who has been engaged in a feud with the governor over the deployment of California National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.
It also accuses Fox of harboring “significant ill will toward Governor Newsom because he is a strong champion of progressive values and an articulate voice fightingthe radical Fox News agenda.”
Newsom’s lawyers, in a letter Friday to Fox News, said that the governor is prepared to voluntarily dismiss his lawsuit “if Fox News retracts the claim that he lied when speaking about President Trump not calling him on June 9.”
The letter also demands a “formal on-air apology” from Watters and Fox News in exchange for dismissal of the suit.
“If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case,” Newsom said in a statement.
“I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet. Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine.”
CNBC has requested comment from Fox News on Newsom’s lawsuit.
The suit says Newsom and Trump spoke for about 16 minutes during a call late June 6, or early June 7, depending on the time zone.
“The contents of that conversation are not germane to this matter, but at no point did President Trump raise the demonstrations in Los Angeles which had begun that day, nor discuss the National Guard,” the suit says. “And when Governor Newsom attempted to discuss the situation in Los Angeles, President Trump steered the topic away.”
The suit notes that on June 10, Trump at a press briefing in the Oval Office told reporters that he last spoke to Newsom “a day ago,” and that he had called the governor “to tell him, got to do a better job, he’s doing a bad job. Causing a lot of death and a lot of potential death.”
Newsom, after learning of Trump’s claim, tweeted, “There was no call. Not even a voicemail.”
The suit notes that on the evening of June 10, Watters, during an episode of “Jesse Watters Primetime,” played an edited clip of Trump that removed the president’s claim that he spoke to Newsom “a day ago.” Watters then reported that Newsom had said there was no phone call.
Watters then noted that Fox News host John Roberts had received Trump’s call logs, which showed the president and the governor last spoke on June 6 or 7.
“Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?” Watters asked. “Why would he do that>”
A chyron that played on Watters’ show said “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call,” the suit notes.
The suit says, “Rather than leave the matter alone, or simply provide the facts, Fox News chose to defame Governor Newsom, branding him a liar.”
“Recognizing that President Trump was not correct, yet wanting to curry favor with the the President, Fox News willfully distorted the facts,” the suit says.
