California Gov. Gavin Newsom today sued Fox News for defamation for $787 million, alleging that anchor Jesse Watters and reporter John Roberts “willfully distorted the facts” about the timeline of phone calls between Trump and Newsom this month.
The dispute centers around protests by Californians against mass deportations in the Los Angeles area. Trump activated the state’s National Guard and sent Marines to the state to quash the protests. Newsom agreed that the two spoke over the phone on June 6, before the president sent the military into Los Angeles.
On June 10, Trump said that he had spoken to Newsom “a day ago,” according to Newsom’s lawsuit, a phone call that Newsom says never took place. Roberts and Watters each reported on Trump’s remarks, with Watters’ program using the chyron “Gavin lied about Trump’s call.”
“Rather than leave the matter alone, or simply provide the facts, Fox News chose to defame Governor Newsom, branding him a liar,” the lawsuit says. “Recognizing that President Trump was not correct, yet wanting to curry favor with the President, Fox News willfully distorted the facts.”
The lawsuit also claims that Watters’ show misleadingly edited Trump’s remarks to misidentify the day he said he had spoken with Newsom.
“Mr. Watters aired a clip of President Trump’s statement, but edited out President Trump stating that he spoke to Governor Newsom ‘a day ago,'” the lawsuit said.
It adds, “Only by misrepresenting President Trump’s own stated timeline of the call could Mr. Watters then show the call logs and assert that Governor Newsom was lying when he responded to President Trump’s assertion, on June 10, that the two had spoken ‘[a] day ago.'”
In a statement about the lawsuit, Newsom said, “If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, it should face consequences.”
“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,” he added.
Fox News responded in a statement saying: “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 damages sought by Newsom is similar to the $787.5 million settlement Fox News reached with Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 over the company’s defamation lawsuit against the network.