OAN Staff Sophia Flores
6:17 PM – Friday, June 27, 2025
California Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom has officially filed a $787 million lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the media giant of defamation.
The lawsuit alleges that Fox News knowingly spread false information that damaged Newsom’s (D-Calif.) reputation.
In particular, the Democrat governor argues that the network’s primetime host, Jesse Watters, had “falsely” claimed that Newsom lied about speaking with President Donald Trump on the phone while on air.
“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. “I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet.”
The amount that Newsom is suing the company for is equivalent to the amount that Fox News paid Dominion Voting Systems in their defamation settlement.
However, Newsom emphasized that he would be willing to drop the lawsuit if the news network retracted that statement, and if Watters apologized to the California governor on air.
“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 in a statement. “Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine,” he concluded.
When asked about the lawsuit, Fox News called it “frivolous.”
“Gov. Newsom’s transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed,” a spokesperson for the network said.
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