Fox News is asking the court to dismiss California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s defamation lawsuit against the media giant over the date of a June phone call between the governor and President Donald Trump in its news reports.

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.

According to Fox News, Newsom also allegedly sought to amend his original complaint, filed on June 27 in the Superior Court of Delaware. His representative did not confirm the allegation.

“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.

Fox News reported on June 10 that Newsom said he did not get a call from Trump, who was interviewed by Fox and shared a screenshot of a call he said he had with the governor about the Los Angeles immigration riots, dated 1:23 a.m. on June 7, that lasted 16 minutes.

“There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” Newsom wrote in a post on X, in reply to video footage of Trump telling reporters on June 10 that he had spoken with the governor “a day ago.”

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.”

President Donald Trump provided Fox News with this screenshot, which he said depicts details of a phone call made to California Gov. Gavin Newsom on June 7, 2025. (Fox News)

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.

(L-R) Jeanine Pirro, Harold Ford Jr., Jesse Watters, Dana Perino, and Greg Gutfeld speak onstage during the 2022 FOX Nation Patriot Awards at Hard Rock Live at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Hollywood, Fla., on Nov. 17, 2022. (Jason Koerner/Getty Images)

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.

President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with California Gov. Gavin Newsom upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on Jan. 24, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

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.