The motion to strike the case was filed on Aug. 5 and also asks the court to require the governor to pay Fox News’s attorneys’ fees.
“With Gov. Newsom facing possible payment of Fox’s attorney fees and political embarrassment, we’re not surprised he has told us he plans to amend his original complaint,” Fox News Media said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times on Aug. 7. “But no amendment will change that this case is a transparent publicity stunt and a colossal waste of the court’s time and resources.”
Newsom’s complaint accuses Fox News of making a misleading video clip and multiple false statements about the timing of his call with Trump, allegedly acting with malice to brand the governor as a liar and curry favor with the president.
“Setting the record straight and confronting Fox’s dishonest practices are critical to protecting democracy from being overrun by disinformation and lies,” Newsom said in the lawsuit.
In his lawsuit, Newsom said he did not speak with Trump again after a June 7 phone call.
In the motion filed this week, Fox News stated that the court should dismiss the case.
“The allegedly defamatory statement—that Newsom ‘lied’ when he said ‘There was no call’—is substantially true. Newsom made an unqualified assertion that no call had taken place when in fact he and President Trump had spoken just days before,” Fox stated.
“Newsom cannot create conditions ripe for confusion or misinterpretation and then demand a $787 million ransom from a news organization taking his words at face value.”
Newsom responded to Fox News’s motion, saying the company should face consequences.
“Fox’s motion reveals their desperation and that they remain committed to distorting the truth on Donald Trump’s behalf,” Newsom told The Epoch Times in an email. “They should face consequences. ... Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine. We will see them in court.”
Newsom’s spokesperson did not say how he planned to amend his original 21-page lawsuit.
Fox News alleged that Newsom’s complaint was filed to “create a press spectacle” to harass Fox News and is not legitimate. The governor sent out a fundraising email within hours of filing the lawsuit.
Fox News stated that host Jesse Watters’s statements about the phone call were protected by the First Amendment.
Watters published a correction after the company received the lawsuit, conveying the governor’s side of the story, and said, “I’m sorry,” according to Fox News. But he said that the governor “reneged on his promise to drop his claims and has proclaimed he had ‘all the time in the world’ to litigate.”
Fox News stated that Newsom has not provided any facts suggesting the company had actual malice behind their statements.
Newsom suggested that Trump misstated the date of the call, which he alleged may have been a result of the president’s mental acuity.
“It is impossible to know for certain whether President Trump’s distortion was intentionally deceptive or merely a result of his poor cognitive state, but Fox’s decision to cover up for the President’s false statement cannot be so easily dismissed,” Newsom’s lawsuit reads.
The governor said he would withdraw his complaint if Fox News issued a retraction and apology, according to the media outlet.
