California Governor Gavin Newsom has filed a $787m defamation lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the network of misrepresenting a phone call between him and US President Donald Trump earlier this month amid immigration arrests and the subsequent protests in Los Angeles.
The complaint was filed on Friday in Delaware Superior Court, the state in which Fox Corp is incorporated.
Newsom spoke by phone with Trump late on June 6 – early June 7 on the East Coast, soon after protests broke out in Los Angeles following federal immigration raids.
Less than 24 hours later, the president sent National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the state, bypassing the governor’s office.
In an interview with NBC News on June 8, Newsom said that he had a civil conversation with the president, but he never brought up sending the National Guard.
“I tried to talk about LA, he wanted to talk about all these other issues,” Newsom said.
“He never once brought up the National Guard,” he added.
Newsom said he did not speak with Trump again, and confirmed this after Trump falsely told reporters on June 10 that he had spoken with the governor “a day ago”.
The suit alleged that the network had a “willingness to protect President Trump from his own false statements by smearing his political opponent Governor Newsom in a dispute over when the two last spoke during a period of national strife”.
The complaint said Fox nonetheless made a misleading video clip and multiple false statements about the timing of the last call, acting with actual malice in an effort to brand Newsom a liar and curry favour with Trump.
