Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday sued Fox News for hundreds of millions of dollars, claiming the channel engaged in “malicious propaganda” by falsely suggesting he lied about whether President Donald Trump had called him about deploying the National Guard to help keep order amid angry protests over immigration enforcement.
Newsom is asking the court to make Fox pay $787 million in damages. That’s a nearly identical sum to the amount Fox agreed to pay to Dominion Voting Systems in a 2023 settlement over the channel’s airing of conspiracy theories around Dominion’s voting machines, that fueled the lie that Trump won the 2020 presidential election.
“Governor Gavin Newsom has become the latest target of Fox’s continuing efforts to lie and distort on behalf of the President,” the lawsuit filed in Delaware Superior Court said.
“Freedom of speech does not grant the right to knowingly fabricate false statements and intentionally poison our democratic processes.”
The lawsuit leans heavily on the Dominion settlement, and Newsom wasted little time in leveraging that case in a fundraising email to supporters.
“If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, they should face consequences — just like they did in the Dominion case,” Newsom said in the email.
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Fox told Politico it would defend the case vigorously, and looked forward to its dismissal. “Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him,” Fox said, according to Politico.
The lawsuit comes amid a feud between Newsom and Trump over the President’s commandeering of the California National Guard during Los Angeles protests against immigration sweeps. Central to the legal action is a claim by Trump on June 10 that he had talked with Newsom the day before. Newsom denied speaking to Trump that recently, claiming in a social media post that, “There was no call.” The lawsuit alleged that Fox branded Newsom as “a liar,” through on-air statements and text on a news report that said, “Gavin lied about Trump’s call.”
Check back for updates on this developing story.
