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Former CNN anchor Don Lemon is suing Twitter owner Elon Musk.
Lemon is accusing Elon Musk of fraud, misappropriation of Lemon’s name, negligent misrepresentation and likeness, and breach of express contract after Musk canceled a show that Lemon was gearing up to launch on Twitter. Lemon is reportedly seeking unspecified monetary damages.
The first episode of Lemon’s show was a contentious interview with Musk which saw the Republican party donor squirm as Lemon pressed him with actual journalistic questions.
According to reports, Musk ended the partnership in March with a text message to Lemon’s agent that simply read “Contract is canceled.”
Lemon claims that Musk backed out of the deal “just a few hours” after their interview in January, saying: “Apparently, free speech absolutism doesn’t apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me.”
On Twitter, Musk claims he nixed Lemon’s contract because of his “insane demands.”
“He made a series of impressively insane demands. We declined. Therefore, there was no deal,” Musk tweeted on Friday, August 2. He has not yet specified what those “insane demands” were.
“According to the suit, Musk and X agreed to pay Lemon $1.5 million with additional ad revenue-sharing terms and other incentives. Lemon did not have a signed contract with X, but he was assured by Musk that there was ‘no need for a formal written agreement or to ‘fill out paperwork.'” [via Variety]
Lemon’s suit against Musk and his management of Twitter comes in tandem with a PAC backed by the South African billionaire being investigated by the Michigan secretary of state’s office on suspicion of election interference.
Over the weekend, Musk caused further fury when he tweeted “Civil war is inevitable” in response to a video of the riots in the United Kingdom. He was also in the news over the weekend after 34-time convicted Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump admitted to being bought out by Musk.
“I am for electric cars,” Trump, a longtime critic of electric cars who promised to end federal support for the industry, said at a rally in Georgia. “I have to because Elon endorsed me very strongly, Elon. So, I have no choice.”