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The lawsuit alleges that Lemon was lied to by X executives, including Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino, who, it says, "deliberately misrepresented what they intended to do," which Lemon claims was to use his name to rehabilitate the X/Twitter brand following a series of PR controversies rather than allowing him creative and editorial freedom for his own talk show on X as promised. Lemon's attorney, Carney R. Shegerian, said more in a press release:

"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. 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."

Lemon also says he spent "hundreds of thousands of dollars" setting up his own media company to produce what was supposed to be an X-exclusive talk show hosted by the former CNN anchor.

On Friday, August 2, Musk referenced the lawsuit in a Twitter post:

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"He made a series of impressively insane demands. We declined. Therefore, there was no deal."

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