The former Republican representative from New York, George Santos, has sued Jimmy Kimmel, the ABC late-night talk show star, claiming that Santos was coerced into appearing in films that led to his national shaming.
According to reports, Santos accused ABC, Walt Disney Co., and Kimmel of copyright infringement, false inducement, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment in a lawsuit filed on Saturday in the U.S. federal court for the southern district of New York.
The lawsuit claimed that Santos was tricked into making Cameo app recordings by Kimmel, who he said was trying to capitalize on and ridicule his gregarious personality.
(Fans of renowned individuals may use Cameo to request bespoke video greetings from their idols.)
At least fourteen “fake requests” were sent to Santos by Kimmel’s program using “phony names,” according to the former representative.
“Will Santos Say It?” a segment on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” began airing the embarrassing footage in December, unbeknownst to Santos, according to the lawsuit.
In one video, Santos supposedly praised the beef-eating contest winner for devouring six pounds of loose ground beef in under thirty minutes, describing the achievement as “amazing and impressive.”
Robert Fantone, Santos’s attorney, said the phony demands were humorous but constituted a “clear violation of copyright law.”
The former representative is suing Jimmy Kimmel for seven hundred thousand dollars for five cameo videos that appeared on Kimmel’s late-night program and were shared throughout social media.
Santos was removed from office in December after allegations of wrongdoing in a House ethics investigation. Allegations of fraud, misuse of campaign money, and falsifying information about his finances on House disclosure reports are among the 23 federal accusations against him.
On every count, he entered a not-guilty plea.
Overwhelming evidence of his misconduct was found in a review of the allegations and charges that the House Ethics Committee published in November, a report that was very scathing of the behavior of the then-congressman.
