Gavin Newsom files $787M character assassination suit declaring Fox News lied about Trump call

The California guv is seeking a minimum of $787 million in damages, which mirrors the amount the right-wing network paid to Dominion Voting Systems in 2023.

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Gavin Newsom submitted fit against Fox News on Friday, accusing the conservative cable television giant of defaming him with its coverage of his call with President Donald Trump previously this month amid the Los Angeles protests over Trump's immigration crackdown and federalization of the National Guard.

The California guv is looking for a minimum of $787 million in damages and a court order restricting the network from airing any extra sectors that falsely declare that he lied about the call with the president, which took location on June 7.

The punitive damages looked for by Newsom are almost similar to the quantity that Fox paid to Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 to settle a disparagement match over election conspiracies broadcast by the network.

" If Fox News desires to lie to the American individuals on Donald Trump's behalf, it needs to deal with repercussions - much like it performed in the Dominion case," Newsom stated in a declaration. "Until Fox wants to be sincere, I will keep battling versus their propaganda maker."

" Gov. Newsom's transparent promotion stunt is frivolous and developed to chill complimentary speech important of him," Fox News said in a declaration. "We will safeguard this case vigorously and anticipate it being dismissed."

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The Democratic governor, on the other hand, seems taking a page out of Trump's playbook with his legal grievance versus the MAGA cable news channel. The president is currently suing CBS News for $20 billion over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, which is progressively looking like it will be settled regardless of its absence of benefit as the network's moms and dad business Paramount looks to complete a media merger that needs the Trump administration's approval.

Trump, who has actually seen other wire service settle with him in recent months, also just recently threatened to sue CNN and The New York Times over their reports on an early intelligence assessment that indicates the US military strikes on Iran might have just held up the Middle Eastern country's nuclear program a few months.

The suit hinges largely on a segment hosted by Fox News primetime host Jesse Watters, who implicated the guv - and likely Democratic presidential prospect - of lying over the description and timeline of a call with Trump. Newsom's legal group sent the network a letter demanding an official on-air apology and a retraction from Watters, noting that if those conditions are satisfied, the guv will drop the claim.

As demonstrations broke out in Los Angeles earlier this month over the administration's aggressive ICE raids, Newsom and Trump spoke on the phone late at night on June 6 on the West Coast, which would have been early in the early morning on June 7 for the president in Washington, D.C. Later that weekend, Newsom told NBC News about the call, labeling it as largely cordial.

During an interview in the Oval Office on June 10, the president asserted that he had talked to the guv "a day earlier" and informed him to "do a much better task," a claim Newsom immediately refuted. "There was no call. Not even a voicemail. Americans ought to be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets does not even understand who he's speaking with," the guv said on social media.