Governor Gavin Newsom is suing Fox News for nearly $800 million, claiming that Jesse Watters defamed him over “lying” about a phone call that Trump claimed he made.
Specifically, Newsom is suing for $787 million, the exact amount of money Fox News settled in their lawsuit with Dominion. He’s trying to draw a connection between that lawsuit and his now.
The lawsuit centers around the claim, made by President Trump, that he called Newsom ‘a day ago’ in early June, which Newsom said never happened. Turned out it did happen, but it wasn’t ‘a day ago’ like Trump said. It was a few days ago.
Here’s more on this from the New York Slimes:
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California sued Fox News on Friday, accusing the network of defaming him in its coverage of a phone call he had with President Trump this month.
The suit, filed in Delaware, where Fox News is incorporated, seeks damages of at least $787 million and a court order prohibiting Fox from broadcasting or posting segments that mistakenly say Mr. Newsom lied about his call with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Newsom’s lawyers also sent Fox News a letter demanding a formal retraction and an on-air apology from Jesse Watters, a host who said on his show that Mr. Newsom had lied about the call with the president. If those conditions are met, the letter states, Mr. Newsom will dismiss the lawsuit.
“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,” Mr. Newsom said in a statement. “I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet.”
The allegations at the heart of the lawsuit stem from volleys between Mr. Newsom and Mr. Trump after the president invoked a rarely used federal statute to seize control of the California National Guard over the governor’s objections to respond to protests against federal immigration raids.
The two leaders spoke by phone late at night on June 6 in California, which was after 1 a.m. June 7 on the East Coast, according to Mr. Newsom and a cellphone record provided by Mr. Trump. The president activated the National Guard less than 24 hours after the call.
On June 8, Mr. Newsom spoke about the phone call on MSNBC.
On June 10, during a White House news conference, a reporter asked Mr. Trump when he last spoke with Mr. Newsom.
“A day ago,” the president said. “Called him to tell him, got to do a better job.”
Mr. Newsom posted a video clip of the comment on social media and said, “There was no call. 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.”
The post, according to the governor’s lawsuit, was written to correct Mr. Trump’s claim that they spoke “a day ago.”
In response, Mr. Trump gave Fox News screenshots of his phone log showing the original call with Mr. Newsom that took place late on June 6 Pacific Daylight Time and early on June 7 Eastern Daylight Time.
In covering the sequence of events, Mr. Newsom alleges, Fox News made deceptive video edits and false statements that concealed that Mr. Trump said the leaders had spoken “a day ago.” Instead, he alleges, the network framed Mr. Trump’s call log as proof that Mr. Newsom had been dishonest when it showed that Mr. Trump was incorrect about when the call took place.
“Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?” Mr. Watters said on his show, according to the lawsuit, which includes an image of a chyron stating, “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call.”
The lawsuit claims that Fox News deliberately mischaracterized the disagreement between the governor and the president to harm Mr. Newsom’s political career. It says viewers who saw Fox’s false reports that Mr. Newsom had lied would be less likely to support him in future elections or donate to his campaigns.