June 27, 2025
VIA OVERNIGHT DELIVERY AND EMAIL
Katherine Moran Meeks
Executive Vice President & General Counsel
FOX NEWS NETWORK, LLC
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
katherine.meeks@foxnews.com
Dear Ms. Meeks:
We represent Governor Gavin Newsom in connection with the false and defamatory
statements made by Fox News Network (“Fox News”) host Jesse Watters about Governor
Newsom.
The facts underlying Governor Newsom’s potential claim are straightforward. On June 7,
2025 at 1:23a.m. Eastern Time (or June 6 at 10:23pm Pacific Time), Governor Newsom
and President Trump spoke for approximately 16 minutes. Although the contents of that
conversation are not germane to this matter, suffice it to say that at no point did President
Trump raise the demonstrations in Los Angeles occurring at that time nor the use of the
National Guard. And when Governor Newsom attempted to discuss the situation in Los
Angeles, President Trump steered the topic away.
That was the last time the two spoke.
Nevertheless, on June 10, 2025, a reporter asked President Trump, “When was the last
time you spoke to Governor Newsom?” President Trump responded: “A day ago. Called
him to tell him, got to do a better job, he’s doing a bad job. Causing a lot of death and a
lot of potential death.”
Within less than hour, Governor Newsom responded on X: “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.” This post was made in direct reply to
another post that contained a video clip of President Trump asserting, on June 10, that the
two had spoken “[a] day ago”:
Never one to let his own lie stand in the way of further deception, President Trump then
apparently reached out to Fox News host John Roberts and provided him with a
screenshot of President Trump’s call log from June 7 that showed the 16-minute call. Mr.
Roberts then posted the following on X:
2
Importantly, Mr. Roberts did not, in his post, provide the critical fact that on June 10,
President Trump had stated that he had spoken to Governor Newsom “a day ago.” Nor
did Mr. Roberts note that June 6—or June 7 at 1:23am—is not “a day ago” when one is
speaking on June 10.
That afternoon, while reporting on air, Mr. Roberts again referred to the matter. Perhaps
realizing that June 6/7 is not “a day ago” from June 10, Mr. Roberts intentionally altered
how he presented President Trump’s comment, stating that President Trump had said that
he had called Governor Newsom “yesterday or the other day.” That, of course, was not
what President Trump had said. His words were clear: “A day ago.” Mr. Roberts chose to
present a factually incorrect picture to Fox viewers to obscure President Trump’s false
statement of fact.
Moreover, this matter is not trivial. It is about more than just misremembering a day or
two regarding routine phone calls. The period of June 6-10, 2025 represented an
unprecedented moment. The President of the United States illegally commandeered the
California National Guard and deployed uniformed troops onto the streets of Los Angeles
over the Governor’s objections. Every hour, every Truth Social post, and every
presidential utterance mattered. History was occurring in real time. It is precisely why
reporters asked President Trump the very question that prompted this matter: when did he
last speak with Governor Newsom.
It is perhaps unsurprising that a near-octogenarian with a history of delusionary public
statements and unhinged late-night social media screeds might confuse the dates. But
Fox’s decision to cover up for President Trump’s error cannot be so easily dismissed.
That is especially true because Fox went further. That evening, Mr. Watters played an
edited clip of President Trump Oval Office statement. The edit? Removing President
Trump’s statement that he last spoke to Governor Newsom “a day ago.” Instead, Mr.
Watters presented President Trump as stating: “Called him up to tell him, got to do a
better job, he’s doing a bad job, causing a lot of death and a lot a potential death.”
After playing the clip, Mr. Watters then stated:
Newsom responded, and he said there wasn’t a phone call.
He said Trump never called him. Not even a voicemail, he
said. But John Roberts got Trump’s call logs, and it shows
Trump called him late Friday night and they talked for 16
minutes. Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never
called him? Why would he do that?
Fox also included the following chryon below Mr. Watters’s report:
3
We realize that you are becoming quite familiar with the elements of defamation, but as a
refresher: under California law, a defamation claim comprises the following: (1) a
publication that is (2) false, (3) defamatory, (4) unprivileged, and (5) has a natural
tendency to injure or causes special damage. J-M Mfg. Co. v. Phillips & Cohen LLP, 247
Cal. App. 4th 87, 97, 201 Cal. Rptr. 3d 782, 790 (2016).
Fox News, through Mr. Watters, defamed Governor Newsom. There can be no debate that
Fox News published the statements in question. Further, calling someone a liar regarding
a discreet issue is defamatory and can be shown to be true or false. Milkovich v. Lorain
Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1, 18-20 (1990). Fox News cannot lay claim to any privilege
because they were not accurately reporting the facts. And though Governor Newsom, as a
public official, will need to prove actual malice, that will not be an impediment given that
Fox News had the actual phone log showing that President Trump had called Governor
Newsom days earlier and because Fox News deliberately cut from the video it aired the
part of President Trump’s statement that showed he was mistaken and that Governor
Newsom was telling the truth.
Furthermore, Fox News’s actions violated California’s Unfair Competition Law, which
prohibits “any unlawful, unfair, or fraudulent business act or practice.” Cal. Bus. & Prof.
Code § 17200. The Unfair Competition Law takes an expansive view of what constitutes
“unfair” competition, defining it to include any practice that “offends established public
policy, that is immoral, unethical, oppressive, unscrupulous, or substantially injurious to
consumers, or that has an impact on the victim that outweighs defendant’s reasons,
justifications, and motives for the practice.” See, e.g., Jolley v. Chase Home Finance,
LLC, 213 Cal.App.4th 872, 907 (2013).
As Jesse Watters has himself said, when a news organization falsely presents an elected
official’s words to make them appear in a better light, it constitutes “an extraordinary
breach of journalistic ethics…Someone has to be fired.”1 Fox News’s Howard Kurtz
similarly labeled such conduct “blatantly unethical” and added that, “If someone on my
staff did that, they’d be looking for a new job.”2 Or, as “media watchdog” Brent Bozell
said on Fox News, a news organization should “run with the answer” and critiqued other
journalists for changing a public figure’s statements to make them appear better.3
1
See October 11, 2024 Jesse Watters Primetime.
2
See October 21, 2024 Fox News segment, Hiding Something: ’60 Minutes’ Editing of Harris Interview
was ‘Blatantly Unethical,’ Kurtz Says.
3
See October 21, 2024 Fox News segment, Media Watchdog Wonders Why Can’t CBS ‘Ask a Question, and
Run with the Answer?’
4
In conjunction with issuing this demand letter, Governor Newsom has commenced a civil
action in Delaware, with which your registered agent has now been served. Governor
Newsom is prepared to voluntarily dismiss the lawsuit if Fox News retracts the claim that
he lied when speaking about President Trump not calling him on June 9. We expect that
you will give the same airtime in retracting these falsehoods as you spent presenting and
amplifying them. Further, Mr. Watters and Fox News must issue a formal on-air apology
for the lie you have spread about Governor Newsom.
We would be happy to speak with you about this matter, if you like. If Fox News fails to
issue a formal retraction and on-air apology, we will proceed with the lawsuit so that a
jury can determine Fox News’s culpability and assign a monetary value to its “blatantly
unethical” conduct.
Sincerely,
Michael Teter Mark Bankson
Teter Legal LLC & Farrar & Ball LLP
Legal Accountability Center mark@fbtrial.com
michael@teterlegal.com
