California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit Friday against Fox News, asking the network to pay $787.5 million in damages over its coverage of his phone call with President Donald Trump during the Los Angeles protests earlier this month.
“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 told Politico Friday. “Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine.”
In the suit, Newsom alleged that Fox News host Jesse Watters lied about a phone call between Newsome and Trump, a call Newsom denies took place, though Trump claimed it did. The alleged call was made amid increased tension between the White House and Newsom over the growing protests, largely motivated by the Trump administration’s deportation policy, which ultimately culminated with Trump ordering National Guard troops to quash the protests.
Mark Bankson, a lawyer representing Newsom, wrote in the suit that Trump’s claim that the phone call took place, a claim Newsom rejects, was consistent with the president’s past behavior.
“It is perhaps unsurprising that a near-octogenarian with a history of delusionary public statements and unhinged late-night social media screeds might confuse the dates,” Bankson and other attorneys of Newsom’s wrote, Politico reported. “But Fox’s decision to cover up for President Trump’s error cannot be so easily dismissed.”
Newsom’s legal team said the governor would be willing to drop the lawsuit should Watters apologize on air, and Fox News retract the claims.