Gavin Newsom sues Fox News for defamation

California Governer Gavin Newsom is taking a page out of Donald Trump’s playbook and suing a news network for alleged mischaracterization. The suit, which Newsom filed in Delaware on Friday, accuses Fox News of defamation in relation to its coverage of a phone call he shared with Donald Trump earlier this month, The New York Times reports.

Here’s the order of events, according to the publication. Earlier this month, the governor and president came into conflict when Trump invoked a rarely used statute to mobilize California’s National Guard in response to protests in L.A. over ICE immigration raids. The two men spoke on the phone on June 6 for Newsom in California and June 7 for Trump, as it was after 1 a.m. on the East Coast, according to both Newsom and a cell phone record provided by Trump. Trump activated the National Guard less than 24 hours after the call.

Newsom spoke about the call on MSNBC on June 8. Then on June 10, a reporter asked Trump when he had last spoken to Newsom at a White House press conference, and he responded that the two had spoken “a day ago.” Newsom then posted a clip of that comment on social media, writing, “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.” 

According to the governor’s lawsuit, that post was meant to correct Trump’s claim that they had spoken “a day ago,” when it had actually been several days. Newsom then claims that in the offending clip, Fox News made deceptive edits and false statements to make it seem like he had been dishonest about the call rather than that Trump was incorrect about when the call took place. “Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him?” host Jesse Watters reportedly said during the segment, while a chyron read, “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call.”