George Santos may have been kicked out of Congress, but he is refusing to lie down as the left’s punching bag.
Santos, who served as the Congressman for New York’s 3rd Congressional District before being expelled from the House of Representatives last December over his long history of fraudulent activity, has filed a lawsuit against late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel for misusing his Cameo videos on his show.
According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Saturday, first reported by The New York Post, Santos is seeking $750,000 from Kimmel for copyright infringement, fraud, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment.
The lawsuit alleges that Kimmel requested at least 14 videos from Santos on the platform Cameo, where celebrities and influencers can sell short videos to their fans or other members of the public.
The complaint claims that Kimmel “played on the comedic irony of possibly getting sued by [Santos] for fraud, claiming [on his show] that it would be a ‘dream come true.’”
It also alleges that he “chose the personal use licenses for all the Cameo videos with the intention to violate such licenses by broadcasting and commercially exploiting the Cameo videos on national television.”
During the December show in which he played the clips, Kimmel even joked about the possibility of being sued by Santos:
[George Santos] has claimed he’s made more money in seven days than he did in Congress for a year, and part of that money came from me.
I sent him a bunch of crazy video requests because I wanted to see what he would read and what he wouldn’t read. I showed some of them on the air on Thursday, and now he’s demanding $20,000 from me to be paid a commercial rate.
Could you imagine if I get sued by George Santos for a fraud? I mean how good would that be? It would be like a dream come true. So since I started buying his videos his rates went way up to $500 a piece. He should be thanking me for buying these videos.
Shortly after Kimmel’s show in December, Santos’s lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to the late-night funnyman warning that they would follow through with legal action unless he stopped sharing the clips.
“We are writing to congratulate you — your ‘dream’ of being sued by Mr. Santos may indeed come true,” wrote Santos’s lawyer Andrew Mancilla, as also revealed by the Post. “While your comedic efforts are much appreciated, you should have obtained Mr. Santos’ consent, as he is not camera shy, nor is he blind to the comedic irony of suing you for fraud.”
It is currently unclear whether Santos’s case will succeed or whether Kimmel is now taking it seriously. Yet, given that Kimmel clearly did not use the videos solely for personal use and the risk of robust copyright laws, don’t be surprised if Santos ends up being the one having the last laugh.
Maybe Aaron Rodgers was right He didn’t say what Kimmel should be worried about So this is just change for him to pay It shows that you can’t walk on people no matter what or who they are There is plenty of material that they can make their jokes about Biden offers up something everyday Kimmel is weak I don’t watch that garbage The other 2 have them too I call them The Late Night Nitwits