(KMJ) Gov. Gavin Newsom filed suit against Fox News on Friday, seeking damages of at least $787 million from the network for allegedly defaming him in comments about a recent phone call with President Trump.
“No more lies,” Newsom wrote in a tweet that announced his lawsuit.
Why $787 million?
The amount of the damages the Newsom is seeking almost exactly matches what Fox Corp. paid Dominion Voting Systems in April 2023 to settle a lawsuit alleging Fox defamed Dominion by claiming its machines gave the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Newsom’s suit is focused on comments by Fox News anchor Jesse Waters, who had said Newsom lied about not having a call with Trump on a certain day in early June.
The suit alleges that Fox News was motivated to “lie and distort on behalf of the President.”
Trump and Newsom have been feuding in recently weeks over the deployment of California National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests over immigration enforcement.
Newsom’s lawyers, in a letter Friday to Fox News, said that the governor is prepared to voluntarily dismiss his lawsuit “if Fox News retracts the claim that he lied when speaking about President Trump not calling him on June 9.” The letter also demands a “formal on-air apology” from Watters and Fox News in exchange for dismissal of the suit.
“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.
