Governor Gavin Newsom of California on Friday filed a lawsuit against Fox News in a Delaware superior court over the network’s report claiming he lied about having a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump on June 9 during anti-ICE demonstrations

Mr Newsom is seeking $787 million in damages in his defamation suit against the conservative news network after show anchor Jesse Watters claimed the governor lied about his phone call with Mr Trump.

He said he had a late-night conversation with Mr Trump on June 6 in California, but the East Coast time of the call was 1:00 a.m. June 7. About 24 hours later, the president deployed the National Guard to quell protests, a move that angered Mr Newsom.

The California governor appeared on MSNBC on June 8 to speak about the phone call. Two days later (June 10), at a press briefing at the White House, Mr Trump said the last time he spoke with the governor was “a day ago.”

Mr Newsom immediately rebuffed the claim. “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.”

In response, Mr Trump shared his call log with Fox News to show that he had spoken with the governor, and Mr Watters discussed the matter on his programme.

But Mr Newsom said his social media post was to refute the date of his call with the president, not that there was no call. He said he only denied the president’s assertion on June 10 that they spoke “a day ago”, claiming the actual call was on June 7.

“If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump’s behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case,” Mr Newsom wrote in a statement to Politico on Friday. “Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine.” 

Mr Newsom has demanded an apology from Fox News anchor Watters and a retraction of the report. He said he would withdraw the suit only on these conditions; else, Fox News should prepare to part with $787 million, as done in the Dominion Voters System when the news outlet circulated misleading reports that the voting machines were rigged.