California Gov. Gavin Newsom sues Fox News for $787 million, alleging defamation

California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Fox News on Friday, seeking damages of at least $787 million from the conservative network for allegedly defaming him in its reporting of a phone call he had with President Donald Trump.

“No more lies,” Newsom wrote in a tweet that announced his lawsuit, which was filed in Superior Court in Delaware, where Fox News is incorporated.

Newsom’s suit is focused on comments by Fox News anchor Jesse Waters, who had said Newsom lied about the call with Trump in early June.

The suit alleges that Fox News was motivated to “lie and history on behalf of the President,” who has been engaged in a feud with the governor over the deployment of California National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

The amount of the damages that Newsom is demanding is almost exactly the amount that Fox Corp. and its cable networks, among them Fox News, agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems in April 2023 to settle Dominion’s lawsuit in Delaware alleging that the networks defamed the company by falsely claiming its machines swayed the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

“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 on the suit.

“Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine,” the Democrat told the news outlet.

CNBC has requested comment from Fox News on Newsom’s lawsuit.