Gavin Newsom is Suing Fox for $787 Million… And Options Activity Hints Someone Was One Step Ahead

Fox News might want to start offering frequent flier miles for courtroom visits… because once again, they’ve landed themselves in legal hot water. This time, it’s not Dominion or Smartmatic knocking on their door with a stack of subpoenas. Nope, the latest lawsuit comes courtesy of California Governor Gavin Newsom… who apparently found just enough free time between running the country’s most dysfunctional state and launching his deeply necessary podcast to sue Fox News for $787 million. (Yes, the same amount Fox paid Dominion.)

So what kicked this whole thing off? According to the lawsuit, Fox News… specifically Jesse Watters (who, side note, I was once told I look like by my manager at Cracker Barrel… not the worst compliment, the guy’s got good hair) aired a segment claiming Gavin Newsom lied about a phone call with Donald Trump. The lawsuit claims Fox deceptively edited video clips to make it look like Newsom flat-out fabricated the call, adding “Gavin Lied About Trump’s Call” across the screen.

Newsom says it’s all bogus. Trump got the date of the call wrong, Newsom called him out on it, and Fox twisted the whole thing into a political hit job. And because we now live in a world where everyone sues everyone over cable news beefs, Newsom is demanding nearly a billion dollars and a formal on-air apology from Watters. (Which, let’s be honest, will happen right after Tucker Carlson invites Rachel Maddow to co-host his next segment on climate change.)

Now, on paper this feels like deja vu. Because, well, it is. Flashback to April 2023: Fox handed over $787.5 million to Dominion Voting Systems just hours before trial, after damning internal texts came out showing the network knew they were airing false info. It was messy. It was expensive. And for a minute there, it looked like Fox had learned its lesson.

According to the one man every Californian secretly wishes would just pack up and move to Austin like the rest of them… they didn’t.

And Newsom isn’t the only one smelling blood in the water. Fox still has a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic looming overhead, and they’re also getting sued by New York City pension funds and the state of Oregon for allegedly torpedoing shareholder value with all this courtroom drama. Even Hunter Biden took a swing at them last year over a revenge porn claim. (That one didn’t make much of a dent… but still. The legal bingo card is getting full.)

What makes the Newsom case a little suspicious, though, isn’t just the familiar dollar amount… it’s the timing. See, in the days leading up to the lawsuit, a bunch of traders were making some oddly aggressive bets against Fox. Specifically, the June 20, 2025 $25 put options suddenly had some of the highest implied volatility in the market. Meaning: someone thought FOXA was about to get punched in the mouth. Those contracts expired before the lawsuit was public, which makes it technically not insider trading… but it does raise the question: who knew what, and when? 

And just because they expired doesn’t mean the bet flopped… rising volatility or a slight dip in the stock could’ve been enough to cash out early with a solid gain. So yeah, it’s not illegal. But it’s curious. Someone placed a bet, and whether they were reading the tea leaves or had ears close to the legal grapevine, they may have made out just fine before the rest of us even heard the first headline.

Maybe it’s coincidence. Maybe someone just had a hunch that Fox was due for another PR disaster. Or maybe a well-informed pessimist placed the bet, collected their winnings, and walked off into the sunset with the world’s most smug I-told-you-so grin. (Honestly, if you’re reading this… call me. We need to talk.) As of now, FOXA is still trading above $57 and hasn’t flinched much. But that was true with Dominion too… until the emails started leaking and the legal fees started stacking. If this thing drags out, and if more behind-the-scenes dirt surfaces (it always does), don’t be surprised if the stock takes a hit.

At some point, the market stops treating these lawsuits as noise and starts asking: how many times can you get hit with a $787 million lawsuit before it becomes a recurring expense? Fox News might still be good at shaping the narrative. But when the courts get involved, the story writes itself.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News doesn’t hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.