Don Lemon sued Elon Musk on Thursday over their failed partnership earlier this year, alleging the Twitter-turned-X owner used the former CNN star to bolster his ad revenue before calling off a deal following Lemon’s controversial interview with Musk.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in California state court against Musk and other X executives, Lemon alleged that the group “enriched and profited from the use of Lemon’s name, likeness, identity and reputation” by entering into the deal and then reneging on it.
Lemon claimed that Musk promised to pay him $1.5 million a year and a share of the ad revenue generated by his show, which would bolster the company’s flagging ad sales after Musk’s purchase of Twitter and his management of the company, which has seen the resurgence of previously staunch right-wing figures.
But after a chaotic interview in March, where Lemon asked Musk about his personal drug use and his embrace of far-right conspiracies, Musk “reneged on their express agreement.”
“It doesn’t take a genius to see the fraud, negligence and reputational harm here,” Lemon’s attorney Carney Shegerian said in a statement. “Don is a hard-hitting journalist who is committed to defending his reputation. We look forward to our day in court.”
X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company allegedly approached Lemon in January about a partnership, nine months after CNN fired the anchor. Musk allegedly told Lemon the deal could be finalized over the phone and that there was no need to “fill out any paperwork,” according to the complaint. The deal would not be compromised even if Musk didn’t like Lemon’s views, the billionaire told the reporter, according to the filing.
Then came the March interview, where Lemon pressed Musk about his ketamine prescription and his involvement in the Great Replacement theory, the idea that Democrats had a “stake” in systematically allowing undocumented immigrants to flock to liberal states to influence the distribution of House seats and Electoral College votes in the state.
Musk abruptly canceled the deal days before the interview aired. “His commitment to a global public square where all questions can be asked and all ideas can be shared does not seem to include the questions he gets from people like me,” Lemon wrote at the time.
Lemon is seeking the money he allegedly earned from the settlement and a jury trial on the merits of his case, according to the filing.
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