A federal judge on Monday dismissed former Rep. George Santos’s (R-N.Y.) lawsuit against Jimmy Kimmel over the late-night host’s requests for personalized videos on Cameo, a ruling that landed just hours before Santos is expected to plead guilty to federal crimes.
Santos sued Kimmel in February, claiming he engaged in “deliberate deception and wrongful appropriation” by requesting videos under a fictitious name to broadcast them on his ABC show for a national audience.
The ex-congressman joined Cameo, a video-sharing website where celebrities sell personalized videos, after he was expelled from the House late last year in the wake of a damning ethics report and mounting criminal scrutiny.
Santos claimed Kimmel and his network committed copyright infringement, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract and unjust enrichment. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, an appointee of former President Clinton, dismissed all four claims in a ruling issued Monday.
Cote ruled that Kimmel’s airing of the videos was transformative enough to be protected by the “fair use” exemption to copyright protections, finding that the videos were “used for political commentary and criticism.”
“In short, a reasonable observer would understand that [Jimmy Kimmel Live] showed the Videos to comment on the willingness of Santos — a public figure who had recently been expelled from Congress for allegedly fraudulent activity including enriching himself through a fraudulent contribution scheme — to say absurd things for money,” Cote wrote in her 27-page decision.
She tossed the remaining claims on various grounds, rejecting Santos’s arguments of why the case should be allowed to move forward.
Though unconnected, the ruling came the same day that Santos is due to appear before a separate judge in his ongoing criminal case. He is expected to plead guilty to multiple counts, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, which would enable Santos to avoid going to trial next month.
The Hill has reached out to Santos for comment.
