Topline:
Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a defamation lawsuit on Friday against Fox News and one of its hosts, claiming the network lied about the timing of a phone call with President Donald Trump to protect the president and damage the governor politically.
The backstory: The dispute stems from a phone call in early June as immigration raids and protests swept Los Angeles and the president deployed armed troops to the city over the governor’s objections. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, accuses Fox News and host Jesse Watters of lying about when the phone call between Newsom and Trump took place. The network then accused Newsom of lying about the call on air.
Why it matters: The suit marks an increasingly aggressive posture by the Democratic governor against Trump and his allies. Newsom, in the past, has relished high-profile dust-ups with the president and Fox News but has been careful not to overtly antagonize Trump in his second term.
Read on... for more details about the lawsuit.
Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a defamation lawsuit on Friday against Fox News and one of its hosts, claiming the network lied about the timing of a phone call with President Donald Trump to protect the president and damage the governor politically.
The dispute stems from a phone call in early June as immigration raids and protests swept Los Angeles and the president deployed armed troops to the city over the governor’s objections.
The lawsuit seeks damages of $787 million — the same amount Fox News paid to settle a lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over false election conspiracies. In a letter to the network, Newsom’s lawyers offer to dismiss the suit if Fox retracts the claim and both the network and host Jesse Watters issue on-air apologies.
The suit marks an increasingly aggressive posture by the Democratic governor against Trump and his allies. Newsom, in the past, has relished high-profile dust-ups with the president and Fox News but has been careful not to overtly antagonize Trump in his second term. The L.A. troop confrontation seems to have changed that.
“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 written 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.”
In a statement, a Fox News spokesperson lashed out at Newsom and promised to fight the suit.
“Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed,” the statement read.
The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, accuses Fox News and Watters of lying about when the phone call between Newsom and Trump took place. The network then accused Newsom of lying about the call on air.
“It is perhaps unsurprising that a near-octogenarian with a history of delusionary public statements and unhinged late-night social media screeds might confuse the dates. But Fox’s decision to cover up for President Trump’s error cannot be so easily dismissed,” the suit states.
Newsom said he gave Fox News call logs showing that the call took place the night of June 6, while Trump claimed they talked “a day ago” on June 10. The lawsuit states that a different Fox News host, John Roberts, first “intentionally altered” how he presented Trump’s comment about the call’s timing to “obscure President Trump’s false statement of fact.”
Watters later played an edited clip of Trump’s statement and asked, “Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?”
The suit states that the matter is “not trivial,” and “is about more than just misremembering a day or two regarding routine phone calls,” claiming that the four-day period in question “represented an unprecedented moment.”
“The President of the United States illegally commandeered the California National Guard and deployed uniformed troops onto the streets of Los Angeles over the Governor’s objections. Every hour, every Truth Social post, and every presidential utterance mattered,” the suit states. “History was occurring in real time. It is precisely why reporters asked President Trump the very question that prompted this matter: When did he last speak with Governor Newsom?”
