Shots Fired! Don Lemon Sues Elon Musk and X After Tech Mogul 'Dragged' Ex-CNN Anchor's 'Name Through the Mud'

Don Lemon is out for blood after Elon Musk abruptly ended his short-lived contract with the tech mogul and his media company, X (formerly named Twitter.)

The former CNN broadcast journalist sued Musk and X for fraud, negligent misrepresentation, misappropriation of Lemon’s name and likeness, and breach of express contract, according to a lawsuit filed by Lemon's legal team on Thursday, August 1, in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.

"Defendants deliberately misrepresented what they intended to do. Defendants knew that if they accurately represented to Lemon that the purpose and meaning of the exclusive partnership deal was to use Lemon’s name, likeness, reputation, and identity to rehabilitate Defendants reputation and draw in advertisers to the X platform, Lemon would never have agreed to do what he did and Defendants would have been unable to utilize Lemon to keep up with their ongoing efforts to woo advertisers," part of the lawsuit read.

For background insight, Lemon signed a content partnership deal with the Tesla founder and X in January 2024 with plans to host an interview-style show streamed exclusively on the social media platform. However, Musk terminated the contract via text message just two months later, simply texting Lemon: "Contract is canceled."

According to court documents obtained by a news publication, Lemon's lawsuit requested unspecified monetary damages as a result of the accusations made against Musk.

In a statement from Lemon's lawyer Carney Shegerian, the attorney declared: "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."

"You don’t have to be a genius to see the fraud, negligence, and reputational damage here," the legal professional snubbed. "Don is an accomplished and hard-hitting journalist who’s committed to defending his good name and holding X’s executives accountable. We look forward to our day in court."

Shegerian further accused Musk of tweeting "negatively about Lemon repeatedly" since ending their contract in March — just hours after the billionaire had sat down for an interview as part of Lemon's new show on X.

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The duo's chat clearly didn't go as planned, with Lemon admitting via video afterward: "Elon Musk is mad at me."

"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," he added.

Among numerous tweets about Lemon, whom Musk referred to by using a lemon emoji, the businessman stated: "🍋 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!"

His shady message continued: "Unfortunately, all 🍋 wants to do is rehash the dying CNN business model 'but on social media,' which will do even worse here than it did on cable TV."

Variety obtained court documents regarding Lemon's lawsuit against Musk.