Newsom Gets MAJOR WIN in Defamation Lawsuit against Fox News

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:00]In breaking news, the $787 million defamation case brought in Delaware by the governor of California, Gavin Newsome, against Fox News for allegations that they lied about him and a phone call that he had and the timing of that phone call with Donald Trump in a in a public matter where the timing of the phone call and the roll out of the military by Donald Trump in the streets of California that mattered and the fact that Jesse Waters picking up from John Roberts and other people on Fox distorted the truth which means they lied about Gavin Newsome quote unquote lying about a call he had with Donald Trump. They tried to get the case dismissed on a motion to dismiss at the very start of the case that was filed in the last several months and Judge Lug of the Superior Court of Delaware, which is where Fox is incorporated, said no dice.

[00:01:00]He said the case is not going to be dismissed. It properly states a claim for defamation and for actual malice.

[00:01:07]Actual malice, which is a requirement since Gavin Newsome is a public figure.

[00:01:12]It's a requirement that that be that that be properly alleged. It can be done by circumstantial evidence, but it's got to be in the complaint. And Judge Lug said it was. Move on to discovery, meaning let's get to the depositions.

[00:01:25]That could include Donald Trump. Will Donald Trump be deposed because of his conversation with Gavin Newsome and the timing of the phone call? Certainly Jesse Waters is going to be up for grabs. John Roberts is going to be up for grabs. And then all the people behind the scenes, many of whom went to the White House state dinner in the last two days to celebrate and fed King Charles, they may well be taking the stand. And the model for this defamation case, and the reason it's for $787 million, is that is an exact match for the amount of money that uh Dominion Voting Systems obtained in settlement from Fox when Fox lied about Dominion about uh and allowed all of these different nut cases like Cydney Powell and Rudy Giuliani and others to go on the air and accuse Dominion of being in a conspiracy.

[00:02:21]to flip votes from uh Trump to Joe Biden in 2020. And they settled that case after all of this discovery material.

[00:02:31]That's the key. All the emails, the internal emails where Fox was criticizing Cindy Powell and Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump internally, but externally they were putting these people on the air to sell soap and to sell products. Right? When all of those got filed on the public docket as part of a motion for summary judgment a year into the case, they settled $787 million. And here we go. And now the judges ruled, "We're going to get to those emails. We're going to get to those depositions under oath." I'm Michael Popak. You're on Legal AF. This is Law Day, May 1, where I and and others around the country who were lawyers reaffirm their oath to the to defend the Constitution and to be good lawyers. Let's get to Judge Lug's new ruling out of the state superior court of Delaware. This has to do with defamation law. That's where a news a entity in this case says something that's untrue, a fact that is untrue about somebody else. Not an opinion, but a fact. And they do and they say that fact or promote that fact either knowing that it's false or with reckless disregard as to whether it's true or not. I don't care whether it's true or not. And you have to make that out in the first filing that you do to start a lawsuit.

[00:03:54]That's called a complaint. And then the complaint gets tested by a motion to dismiss to make sure the elements under that particular uh state's laws and procedural laws are met. Now, this is sort of a hybrid case because Gavin Newsome sits in California. So arguably he was injured in California, but he brought the case against Fox in Fox's backyard, the state that they were incorporated, Delaware, and he filed it in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware. Not even home cooking in California. He's so confident about his case that the law the lawyers for Gavin Newsome said, "We'll sue them where they live in Delaware."

[00:04:34]Two choices in Delaware. You either go to the chancery court if you if there's equitable issues you're looking for or if you're seeking damages, you go to the superior court of the state of Delaware.

[00:04:46]Superior Court Judge Lug, that's what they did, by the way, in the case Dominion sued in Superior Court in Delaware. Okay. They filed their motion to dismiss. Who are the lawyers for Fox?

[00:04:59]Fox News Network. It's a law firm called DA Piper. DA Piper is also representing Donald Trump in issues related to defamation and Eugene Carol and appeals and the rest. Right? So you see the overlap. Fox and Trump using the same law firm. Uh now here's here's let me read to you from what Judge Lug has written in uh in particular. Let me go to page 33. When you get to actual malice. Now, let me just give the factual details here. Before Donald Trump sent in the National Guard in or about, this is undisputed facts. On June 6th, Friday, June 6, 2025, there was a phone call between Gavin Newsome and Donald Trump for for 16 minutes. That's what's alleged and that's not disputed.

[00:05:57]That's the date. Friday, June 6th on um later and that and that's reported by the way that's reported on Fox, other news outlets that on the 6th there was a phone call on June 10th, 4 days later, Donald Trump at a press conference in the White House where he was criticizing Governor Nuome. And when he was asked, he said he spoke to Nuome a day ago.

[00:06:27]that would that would make the phone calls date the 9th, not the 6th. Nuome denied that because it made him look bad. It made it look like right before they rolled out the military with Gavin Newsome's complicity, uh, they Trump sent in the National Guard. So, the timing here, there's a big difference as to whether the call between Trump and, uh, Gavin Newsome for 16 minutes was on the 6th or the 9th. It makes a difference. It's the actual heart of the matter. And so what Fox ended up doing is take Trump at his word, said that it was the ninth. Then John Roberts apparently has contact with Donald Trump on Air Force One and he shows him the call log, but the call log is from the 6th, but Trump makes it sound like and makes it look like the call log is from the 9th. So Roberts runs a story that Gavin Newsome is lying about the phone call. Then Jesse Waters picks it up on his show and and and they have underneath running underneath in what's called a Chiron, they have a um a line that says effectively that Gavin Newsome lies about phone call with Donald Trump. I mean, they come out right out and say it. Lie. A lie. Okay.

[00:07:57]Gavin Newsome's position is I told the truth about the 6th. Everybody reported on the phone call on the 6th. You then ran with the story that it happened on the 9th to make it look bad. And to make me really look bad, you said I was a liar, indicating that the call took place on the 9th instead of the sixth.

[00:08:17]You're wrong. Fox's response to that is, well, um, it really doesn't matter. The 6th, the 9th, it's all the same. You know, Newsome acts like there wasn't a call, but there was a call. We were really just reporting that there was a call and the date didn't matter. But the date does matter as we know, right?

[00:08:35]Here's Gavin Newsome talking about the call. Play the clip. He's always keyboard warrior. You know, when he holds those bizarre press conferences, he calls you Nuskum this. And he makes all of these statements to be a tough guy. But the times where I've seen you with him, where you've stood up to him, taller than him, looking down at him, firm handshake, where he's in front of the press, where he has the ability to call you out and do that tough guy act.

[00:09:02]He's he's free to do it in public. He never does it and then he like pretends that like y'all are cool. He's like, and it's such a weird thing to see. I mean, it's it's really pathetic. Mr. President, it's time to act like one. I think it's sad when Donald Trump was just, you know, a day before he was to federalize the National Guard here in Los Angeles. He called me. We talked on a Friday night late at night. He wanted to brag about the new scum thing. He said, "It's pretty funny, isn't it?" He goes, "Pretty original." I said, "Well, it's not original." There was this guy, I can't remember his name, but he used to say the same thing. He goes, "Hey, what about my hats? What do you think?

[00:09:37]It's pretty good brand, right? Mega, you know, it's pretty good. I've sold hundreds of thousands." I mean, I'm like, "Are you seriously? Are we seriously having this conversation when you're supposed to be reading me the riot act about keeping people safe in Los Angeles? You never once talked about the National Guard. You never wanted to talk about what happened in LA. It's much more alarming than you think. And that's why what is happening in plain sight. You need to see for your own eyes. We've got to pay attention. This guy is unhinged. He's getting weaker and weaker by the day. You saw that with the new inflation numbers that came out, the wholesale numbers that came out today.

[00:10:08]You're seeing that with an economy that's slowing down. You see that with the crony capitalism where he's extracting and nationalizing businesses, socializing, dare I say, some of America's most iconic businesses and doing 15% extractions. Ask Nvidia how that feels. Look what's happening in this country to truth and trust. He's trying to censor historical facts. He's trying to rewrite history in the Smithsonian. This is one of the great grass and the great corruption we've ever seen in US history. Billions of billions of dollars are being fleeced.

[00:10:36]It's right in front of us. So, this is a serious moment. It requires seriousness of purpose and it requires us to fight fire with fire and play by a new set of rules. And I know that's hard for Democrats. I know, trust me, I'm one of them. But this is a real moment of peril if we do not stand up. So, right before he's about to send the National Guard and then the military into Los Angeles and California. All he wants to talk about is his MAGA hat.

[00:11:05]>> His debate with Kla Harris. You can't make this stuff up. like as though you're buds >> about a call that took place on the 6th, not on the 9th. So when you run underneath Gavin Newsome, Gavin Newsome lies, that's the heart of the defamation.

[00:11:23]Um, this is what the judge says on 20 page 28. The crux of Fox's statement is that Governor Nuomo was dishonest, that he lied about not speaking with President Trump. Robert's response on June 10th to Governor Nuome's ex posting stating that the president's Trump's call logs and Trump himself assert that the president spoke with Governor Nuome.

[00:11:48]See Nuome put up on X, I spoke on the 6th, not on the 9th. Robert's response on X does not indicate when this conversation between Nuome and Trump occurred. Waters, the judge says, questioned why Governor Nuomo would lie about speaking with the president. Water statement does not indicate when this conversation between Nuome and Trump took place. It is reasonably conceivable, the judge says, under the facts set forth in the complaint that the gist or sting of Fox's statements is that Governor Nuome lied about having ever talked with President Trump and thus Fox's statements may reasonably understood to be substantially untrue.

[00:12:31]He continues, um, on page 31, the language of Fox's statement is not contested. Waters, framed by the Chiron, Gavin lied about Trump's call, stated the following. In fact, let's play Jesse Waters on that clip. Play it. You might have heard that Governor Nuomo sued Fox News. He didn't even ask for a correction first. He just sued. I invited him on the show to talk it out manto man, but he said no, so we'll have to do it without him. On Tuesday, June 10th, President Trump said this in connection with the LA riots.

[00:13:08]Listen, >> Mr. President, when is the last time you spoke with Governor >> a day ago called him up to tell him got to do a better job. He's doing a bad job.

[00:13:20]>> Newsome responded on X. There was no call, not even a voicemail.

[00:13:26]We took that to mean there was no call ever. Period. Wouldn't you? President Trump sent Fox's John Roberts a screenshot showing that Trump and Newsome did have a call the previous Friday night, the first night of the riots. Based on what we knew at the time, I asked why would Nuome lie and claimed Trump never called him. Nuome says he meant there was no call, not even a voicemail a day ago. and he was arguing about only when the call took place, not whether there was a call.

[00:14:00]Newsome thinks it would have been clear if we had played the full clip where President Trump said they spoke a day ago. Well, we left that out because it didn't seem relevant. We thought the dispute was about whether there had been a call at all, not when. We thought the governor was clear when he said without qualification that there was no call.

[00:14:21]Now Nome's telling us what was in his head when he wrote the tweet. He didn't deceive anybody on purpose. So I'm sorry. He wasn't lying. He was just confusing and unclear. Next time, Governor, why don't you just say what you mean? So you see how he said Newsome responded. He said there wasn't a phone call, but John Roberts got Trump's call logs and there was a phone call. Why would Nuome lie? That's the defamation.

[00:14:46]As to actual malice, you said it. Did you say it recklessly or you knew it was false? That's now that has to be alleged. Doesn't have to be proven.

[00:14:56]We're only at the pleading stage. It only has to be um alleged properly.

[00:15:02]Here's what the judge says about that.

[00:15:05]Governor New on page 33, Governor Nuome alleges that Fox deliberately presented a false picture of the June 6th phone call to fulfill their preconceived narrative and that Fox advanced this false falsity about Governor Nuome out of a desire to harm him politically. He contends that FN Fox harbors ill towards him and engages in a pattern of employing preconceived false narratives to attack Governor Nuome. They cite CL other clips of Jesse Waters attacking Governor Nuome when Governor Nuome asserts the June 20th uh and then they go through those comments on page 34.

[00:15:41]The judge concludes the amended complaint alleges facts which when viewed in a light most favorable to Governor Nuome, which is the standard at this stage in the litigation, evidence Fox published false information about Governor Nuome with knowledge of the statement's falsity or with a reckless disregard of whether or not it was true has been properly stated. Move on.

[00:16:04]Here's the judge's conclusion. On page 42, the court finds that Fox will not suffer any hardship defending itself in Delaware. They argued we shouldn't have to defend ourselves in Delaware. Uh we we we reside in New York. The state you chose to incorporate is the state you'll defend the case in. At this stage, under facts set forth in the complaint and under reasonable inferences, recovery is conceivable. Meaning it's conceivable that Gavin Newsome is going to recover damages in this case even when viewed through the more discerning lens applied to allegations of defamation of a public official. California law is going to apply. Delaware procedural law is going to apply. And let's get down to um and let's get down to discovery in this case. Here come the emails. Here come the documents. Here comes the proctologist style examination by the lawyers by Gavin Newsome against Fox and Donald Trump. Uh we're going to continue to follow it all right here. Fastmoving story. You know that you know they're going to try to take it's hard to take an appeal from a motion to dismiss a complaint under Delaware procedural law.

[00:17:19]I think that's a dead bang loser. I think this case is going to have to progress now. you know, with this particular judge, there's nowhere to go until you're you're later in the case, towards the end of the case. An interlocatory appeal, meaning a an appeal before the end of the case on this particular issue, is very very difficult. I practice law in Delaware.

[00:17:39]I'll tell you that it's it's virtually impossible to get that granted that early. I don't care who the defendant is. In this case, it's Fox, not Donald Trump. Anyway, so we'll continue to follow it. Thanks for being here on Law Day where we're we're celebrating the rule rule of law all day. 40% discount in honor of rule of law day on Substack where I've posted this uh filing this order for paid members to get their hands on and read for themselves. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popac. Can't get your fill of legal AF? Me neither.

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