California Governor
In a defamation lawsuit filed Friday in Delaware, Newsom accused the network of deliberately misrepresenting comments made by himself and Trump to claim that Newsom had lied about a phone conversation between the two leaders.
Newsom is seeking $787 million, roughly the same amount Fox News paid to Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 to settle a separate defamation lawsuit over the network’s election coverage. Newsom’s attorneys cited that case in his lawsuit, arguing that evidence surfaced before the case settled shows that the network’s priority is advancing Trump’s agenda.
“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.”
The suit echoes the president’s own strategy of suing media companies over unfavorable coverage. Among other cases, Trump has sued
“Governor Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.
Fox News said that it would defend the lawsuit vigorously and looks “forward to it being dismissed.”
Lawyers for Newsom cited one such case in their lawsuit, pointing to a statement made by the president’s attorneys in a separate lawsuit that news organizations are “responsible for accurately reporting the truth of events, not distorting an interview to try and falsely make their preferred candidate appear coherent and decisive.”
The lawsuit also seeks a court order blocking Fox News from continuing to broadcast segments that imply Newsom lied about his phone call with the president.
LA Protests
Trump and Newsom have been at odds over how best to respond to protests in downtown Los Angeles over the president’s immigration raids. Trump took control of the California National Guard and deployed thousands of troops to the city over Newsom’s objections. California sued to block the deployment, but Trump has been permitted to retain control of state troops under a temporary court order.
The anti-deportation protests have since died down, but National Guard troops and Marines remain present in the city outside of federal buildings and flanking Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they carry out raids.
Newsom says he spoke with Trump over the phone late on June 6 in California, which was early June 7 on the East Coast. Newsom says he repeatedly tried to broach the subject of ongoing protests in Los Angeles, but that Trump “steered the topic away,” according to the lawsuit.
Trump activated the National Guard within a day, in a proclamation issued on June 7.
On June 10, Trump was asked when he last spoke to Newsom and he told reporters they had spoken “a day ago,” according to the lawsuit.
On social media, Newsom posted a video of Trump’s comments and said: “There was no call. Not even a voicemail.” The lawsuit claims the governor was correcting the record because they had not spoken on the day Trump suggested.
‘Gavin Lied’
Trump gave screenshots of his phone log showing the call he had with Newsom on June 7. Newsom’s lawsuit claims that the news network made deceptive edits of Trump’s comments about the call and pointed to the screenshots as evidence that Newsom was lying about not having spoken to the president.
The lawsuit points to a June 10th broadcast of Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News, in which Watters said: “Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?”
As he spoke, the chryon read: “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call”
(Updates with Fox News comment starting in sixth paragraph.)
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