Gavin Newsom is suing Fox News for defamation over its coverage of a phone call the California Gov. had with President Donald Trump.
In the suit, filed Friday, Newsom says that Fox News had used deceptive edits to claim that the governor had lied in saying that Trump had not called him about deploying National Guard troops during the L.A. protests, according to news reports. He is demanding $787 million in monetary damages, which is about the same amount Fox paid in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems.
“No more lies,” Newsom wrote in a post on X Friday. “I’m suing Fox News for $787 million.”
“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 added in a statement to the New York Times. “I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet.”
Trump used a federal statute to seize control of the California National Guard earlier this month, as protests broke out about his administration’s crackdown on immigration and the use of ICE agents. Trump has claimed that he had called Newsom about the guards and provided call logs to Fox News, which Newsom claims were manipulated to prove Trump’s claims, according to reports.
More to come.
