Don Lemon is suing Elon Musk for fraud.
The 58-year-old former CNN anchor is suing the 53-year-old richest man in the world over money he believes he is owed from his now-defunct talk show on X, which was cancelled after just one interview with Elon that got heated.
A lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of California Thursday (August 1) reveals Don had been guaranteed $1.5 million for a one-year deal, via Page Six.
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Don allegedly would be paid $200,000 up-front with the incentives to renew the deal twice with the same terms and receive 60% of gross ad revenue, according to the complaint.
He also claimed the deal included $500,000 in advertising credits on X and thousands in “performance” payouts depending on how many followers he acquired.
Earlier in the year, when Don interview Elon about topics advertisers boycotting the platform because of a lack of censorship, Elon got notably angry.
“Choose your question carefully, there’s five minutes left,” he warned before later scrapping the show.
Don claimed in his suit that Elon never paid him, despite Elon allegedly using the journalist’s name and brand to “woo advertisers” to his platform.
The lawsuit claims he “provided false and inconsistent reasons for refusing to pay Lemon that completely contradicts what Musk told Lemon’s agent.”
Don, however, never actually signed any paperwork after Elon claimed there was “no need.”
Don‘s lawyer Carney Shegerian said in a statement to the New York Times, “X executives used Don to prop up their advertising sales pitch, then canceled their partnership and dragged Don’s name through the mud.”
His attorneys concluded that their client and his reputation “were damaged” by the defendants’s “false promises and representations, economically and non-economically.”
In addition to fraud, Don is seeking damages for breach of contract, misappropriation of name and likeness, unjust enrichment and other claims. Elon‘s attorney has not yet responded.