Gavin Newsom sues Fox News over segment from Philly native Jesse Watters
The lawsuit centers primarily on a segment in which Watters claimed the Democratic governor lied about a conversation with Trump ahead of the president's move to deploy the National Guard.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has filed a $787 million lawsuit against Fox News Network, alleging that it defamed him during its coverage of a phone call he had with President Donald Trump earlier this month amid the then-burgeoning demonstrations in Los Angeles protesting the president’s immigration policies.
Newsom’s lawsuit centers primarily on a Fox News segment from host Jesse Watters in which the Philadelphia native claimed the Democratic governor lied about a conversation with Trump ahead of the president’s move to deploy National Guard troops for the protests. Watters’ program used an edited video of Trump’s statements on the call to support the claim, alleges the complaint filed Friday in Delaware Superior Court.
The complaint states that Newsom spoke with Trump on June 6 at 10:23 p.m. Pacific time, or shortly after 1 a.m. on June 7 Eastern time. During the 16-minute call, the complaint claims, Trump did not move to discuss the Los Angeles demonstrations, or mention use of the National Guard, and avoided those issues when Newsom attempted to bring them up. On June 9, about 2,000 troops were sent to the city, according to NBC News.
In a June 10 press briefing at the White House, Trump told reporters that he spoke with Newsom “a day ago” to tell him he had to “do a better job.” The complaint claims that Trump made that statement to indicate the pair had spoken more recently than they actually had, and suggest they discussed the situation in Los Angeles. Later that day, Newsom responded to Trump’s statement on social media, writing in a post on X: “There was no call. Not even a voicemail.”
During his June 10 show, the lawsuit alleges, Watters played an edited video of Trump’s statements at the White House in which the “a day ago” portion had been removed. During the report, a chyron at the bottom of the screen read, “Gavin lied about Trump’s call,” according to the complaint. The network also showed a screenshot of Trump’s call logs, obtained by host John Roberts, that indicated the pair’s phone call happened during the early morning hours of June 7.
“Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?” Watters asked during the broadcast.
Newsom alleges that the network “advanced this lie about Governor Newsom out of a desire to harm him politically.” In addition to seeking $787 million in punitive damages — an amount that is nearly identical to the settlement in the network’s Dominion Voting Systems case — Newsom is seeking an undetermined amount of compensatory damages. The governor is also asking for a court order that prevents Fox News from broadcasting content indicating he lied about the call.
“Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him,” Fox News said in a statement. “We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed.”
In a letter to Fox, Newsom’s attorneys indicated he would drop the lawsuit if the network issued a retraction and Watters made an apology on the air, according to the New York Times. Because Newsom is pursuing the lawsuit as an individual, and not in his capacity as governor, his office declined to comment. A Newsom representative did not immediately respond to request for comment.
“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 to Politico. “Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine.”