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Former CNN host Don Lemon is suing Elon Musk and his social media platform X for a breach of contract after their content partnership deal was nixed by the tech mogul.
According to reports, the former CNN host Don Lemon has officially filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. The suit, filed in a San Francisco county court on Thursday (Aug. 1), alleges that Musk committed a breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, misappropriation of Lemon’s name and likeness, and fraud. It comes five months after his partnership deal with Musk to provide exclusive journalistic content was nixed when Musk backed out of the deal after an interview with Lemon in March via text message. Lemon is seeking an undisclosed amount in damages, claiming he wasn’t paid by Musk.
“This case is straightforward. X executives used Don to prop up their advertising sales pitch, then canceled their partnership and dragged Don’s name through the mud,” said Don Lemon’s attorney Carney R. Shergerian in a statement. The lawsuit alleges that Musk agreed to pay Lemon $1.5 million under the partnership, with $200,000 paid up-front and incentives including bonus payments for reaching performance thresholds and an option to renew the one-year deal twice with the same terms.
However, there was no signed agreement paperwork. In the filing, Lemon stated that he had reservations about entering into the partnership but “Musk represented to Lemon that he would have full authority and control over the work he produced even if disliked by Defendants, and that there would be no need for a formal written agreement or to ‘fill out paperwork.’” After the split, Lemon spoke out about the interview: “Throughout our conversation, I kept reiterating to him that although it was tense at times, I thought it was good for people to see and hear our exchange, and that they would learn from our conversation. … But apparently, free speech absolutism doesn’t apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me.”
Lemon also claims that Musk “tweeted negatively about Lemon repeatedly” after the deal’s cancellation to his more than 192 million followers on X. Musk said in a post in March that Lemon “is welcome to monetize on this platform, just like everyone else. What we aren’t going to do is guarantee minimum payments to him, as he was demanding, which would be going beyond everyone else!”