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Former Rep. George Santos filed a civil lawsuit against Jimmy Kimmel on Saturday accusing the late-night television host of using fake names to solicit cameo videos of the former lawmaker and then improperly using them on his show.
Santos sued Kimmel for copyright infringement, fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment. He is seeking at least $750,000 in damages.
Santos said in a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York that Kimmel submitted at least 14 requests for clips on the site Cameo, where celebrities sell personalized short video messages.
Kimmel provided “false names and narratives,” the lawsuit says, and sent “false requests…from fake user profiles created by Kimmel as part of the fraud.” The lawsuit was first reported by the New York Post.
It says Kimmel “elected personal use licenses for all Cameo videos with the intent to violate those licenses by broadcasting and commercially exploiting the Cameo videos on national television.”
Kimmel’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday. NBC News also contacted ABC and Disney, both defendants, for comment.
The lawsuit says Kimmel began using the “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in December, telling his audience that Santos had “a new job making videos on Cameo for $400 each” and that Kimmel couldn’t resist sending him “ridiculous requests.” Some of the videos were played during a segment titled “Will Santos Say It?”
During a Dec. 11 episode of the show, Kimmel joked about the possibility of being sued by Santos, according to the lawsuit.
“Can you imagine if George Santos sued me for fraud? I mean, how cool would that be? It would be like a dream come true,” Kimmel said, according to the lawsuit. “So since I started buying your videos, your rates went up to $500 a piece. You should thank me for buying these videos.”
Kimmel then played two more videos, the lawsuit says.
An attorney for Santos sent Kimmel a cease-and-desist letter on Dec. 12 and demanded that the videos be removed from YouTube and TikTok accounts associated with the show.