California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit against Fox News on Friday, accusing the conservative news network of defamation.
The suit, which seeks $787 million in damages, argues that coverage on Fox News misrepresented a phone call between Newsom and President Trump in a way designed to damage Newsom’s reputation.
The phone call in question took place after 1 a.m. on June 7, prior to Trump’s activation of the National Guard in California. On June 10, when a reporter asked if he and Newsom had spoken, the president claimed that he had called Newsom “a day ago” to tell him to do a better job handling protests in Los Angeles. National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles in the early morning hours of June 8.
Newsom disputed Trump’s claim that they had spoken the previous day on social media. “There was no call,” Newsom said. “Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
In a prime-time segment, Fox News host Jesse Watters stated that Newsom lied about receiving a phone call from President Trump. The show included a graphic that read “Gavin lied about Trump’s call” and featured an image of Trump’s call history with Newsom, showing the June 7 call. “Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?” Watters asked during the segment.
The lawsuit claims that the mischaracterization of the situation, namely the claim that Newsom lied about having a phone call with Trump, could damage Newsom’s political career, which is widely expected to include a run for president.
The $787 million that Newsom seeks in damages is no coincidence. Fox News paid that amount to settle a prior defamation lawsuit from voting machine maker Dominion Voting Systems after the network spread debunked conspiracy theories about the company’s equipment.
“Unfortunately, the past two years have shown that the Dominion settlement did not serve as the deterrent many had predicted, as Fox has continued to launder the stream of false information flowing out of the White House,” the lawsuit states.