Newsom sues Fox News for saying he lied about a phone call with Trump

Mr. Newsom has adopted an increasingly combative approach with the president since Mr. Trump sent military troops to Los Angeles this month amid his administration’s immigration crackdown. The governor, a Democrat, is taking a page from the president by suing a news media outlet over coverage.

Mr. Newsom’s lawyers also sent Fox News a letter demanding a formal retraction and an on-air apology from Jesse Watters, a host who said on his show that Mr. Newsom had lied about the call with the president. If those conditions are met, the letter states, Mr. Newsom will dismiss the lawsuit.

The punitive damages sought by Mr. Newsom mirror the amount that Fox News agreed to pay in 2023 to settle a lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems that accused the network of publicizing false election conspiracies that damaged the company.

“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,” Mr. 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 allegations at the heart of the lawsuit stem from volleys between Mr. Newsom and Mr. Trump after the president invoked a rarely used federal statute to seize control of the California National Guard over the governor’s objections to respond to protests against federal immigration raids.

The two leaders spoke by phone late at night on June 6 in California, which was after 1 a.m. June 7 on the East Coast, according to Mr. Newsom and a cellphone record provided by Mr. Trump. The president activated the National Guard less than 24 hours after the call.

On June 8, Mr. Newsom spoke about the phone call on MSNBC.

On June 10, during a White House news conference, a reporter asked Mr. Trump when he last spoke with Mr. Newsom.

“A day ago,” the president said. “Called him to tell him, got to do a better job.”

Mr. Newsom posted a video clip of the comment on social media and said, “There was no call. Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”

The post, according to the governor’s lawsuit, was written to correct Mr. Trump’s claim that they spoke “a day ago.”

In response, Mr. Trump gave Fox News screenshots of his phone log showing the original call with Mr. Newsom that took place late on June 6 Pacific Daylight Time and early on June 7 Eastern Daylight Time.

In covering the sequence of events, Mr. Newsom alleges, Fox News made deceptive video edits and false statements that concealed that Mr. Trump said the leaders had spoken “a day ago.” Instead, he alleges, the network framed Mr. Trump’s call log as proof that Mr. Newsom had been dishonest when it showed that Mr. Trump was incorrect about when the call took place.

“Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?” Mr. Watters said on his show, according to the lawsuit, which includes an image of a chyron stating, “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call.”

The lawsuit claims that Fox News deliberately mischaracterized the disagreement between the governor and the president to harm Mr. Newsom’s political career. It says viewers who saw Fox’s false reports that Mr. Newsom had lied would be less likely to support him in future elections or donate to his campaigns.

Though Mr. Newsom and California are frequently criticized by Fox News hosts, the governor has made several high-profile appearances on the network in recent years. In 2023, Mr. Newsom sat for a lengthy interview with Sean Hannity, a Fox News host, and participated in a debate with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida that aired on the network.