Gavin Newsom takes Fox News to court over call with Donald Trump

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Gov. Gavin Newsom is suing Fox News for defamation, claiming that the network lied about the date he last spoke with President Donald Trump on the phone and accused the governor of lying about the call.

“By disregarding basic journalistic ethics in favor of malicious propaganda, Fox continues to play a major role in the further erosion of the bedrock principles of informed representative government,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit, filed Friday by Newsom as an individual, seeks $787 million in damages from the network — roughly the same amount Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 to settle a defamation case over the network’s election claims. Newsom promised to drop the suit if Fox News retracts its claim that Newsom lied and issues a formal on-air apology.

To some Democratic strategists, Newsom’s move demonstrates the governor’s willingness to check Trump’s power. It is the latest episode of an on-again-off-again feud between him and Trump, who collaborated over Los Angeles wildfire aid earlier this year but fought over the president’s deployment of troops to quell unrest in the same city despite Newsom’s objection.  

“Democrats across the country are out there yearning for Democrats to take on Trump,” said longtime Democratic consultant Garry South. “Partly through Trump’s own stumbles and his own mistakes, I think that he has inadvertently boosted Newsom into the position of being the chief protagonist against him.”

Fox News said in a statement that it would defend the case “vigorously.” 

“Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him,” the statement said.

Newsom’s attorneys argued in a letter that the network intentionally misled its audience into believing the governor lied about his last call with Trump earlier this month, before the two clashed over Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles amid protests over immigration enforcement. 

The governor spoke with Trump over the phone for 16 minutes on June 7, the letter said. But Trump told a reporter on June 10 that he’d spoken with Newsom “a day ago” instead, stating that he had called Newsom “to tell him, got to do a better job, he’s doing a bad job.”

Newsom rebuked the president in a statement on X, arguing there was no call or even a voicemail from Trump on that day. “Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to,” he said.

But Fox News hosts John Roberts and Jesse Watters left out Trump’s comment suggesting the call had taken place June 9 in their coverage, Newsom’s attorneys argued. And Watters claimed on air that Newsom lied, even though he reported that call logs showed the call occurred on June 6.  

“Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?” Watters said, with a banner appearing on screen simultaneously that said: “Gavin lied about Trump’s call.”

Newsom’s attorneys argued the coverage shows the network’s effort to “cover up for President Trump’s error.”

But in suing Fox News, Newsom is taking a page from Trump’s own playbook by suing prominent media outlets for their coverage, drawing concern from First Amendment advocates who urged Newsom to drop the case.

“Lawsuits like this risk becoming a form of censorship and send a troubling message to news organizations: that they may face legal retaliation for their work,” said Katherine Jacobsen, program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists.

This post was originally authored and published by Yue Stella Yu from Cal Matters via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.