California Governor Gavin Newsom has filed a $787 million defamation lawsuit against Fox News, accusing the network of deliberately misrepresenting a call he had with Donald Trump and demanding a retraction identical in value to the Dominion settlement.
At a Glance
- Newsom is suing Fox News for defamation over Trump call coverage.
- The lawsuit seeks $787 million in damages and an on-air apology.
- Fox allegedly used deceptively edited footage in its broadcast.
- The suit was filed in Delaware, where Fox is incorporated.
- Newsom pledges to donate damages to anti-Trump organizations.
The Lawsuit That Mirrors Dominion
Governor Gavin Newsom’s legal complaint, filed in Delaware Chancery Court, directly accuses Fox News and host Jesse Watters of knowingly airing manipulated footage that falsely portrayed him as dishonest about a 2020 phone call with then-President Donald Trump. The suit alleges that the network broadcast “deliberately deceptive editing” to mislead viewers into believing Newsom contradicted himself about when National Guard troops were authorized during George Floyd protests.
Newsom maintains that he spoke to Trump only once—on June 6, California time—and that any other timeline was a fabrication created for political effect. The lawsuit explicitly compares the Fox broadcast to the circumstances in the Dominion Voting Systems case, which resulted in a historic $787 million settlement for spreading election-related falsehoods.
Political Strategy or Media Reckoning?
The lawsuit goes beyond damages, demanding an on-air apology and full retraction from Watters. Newsom’s legal team claims the broadcast violated California’s Unfair Competition Law by misleading the public and damaging his reputation as a public official. The Governor emphasized that any monetary award from the case would be donated to organizations fighting Trump’s political agenda, turning the legal action into a symbolic counterattack on disinformation.
Legal Stakes for Conservative Media
The Reuters report confirms that the complaint also seeks an injunction to bar Fox from rebroadcasting the allegedly false segment. Meanwhile, Politico notes that Newsom’s team views this legal maneuver as a test of whether conservative media can be held legally accountable for partisan distortion.
Legal analysts say the lawsuit could have sweeping consequences for editorial freedom and defamation thresholds, particularly given its reference to the Dominion case. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Newsom’s office has signaled it may drop the suit only if Fox issues a retraction on the same scale as the original segment.
Whether Fox decides to dig in or settle, as it did with Dominion, this case is already raising the stakes in America’s long-running information war.
