(PatriotWise.com) — Disgraced former New York Rep. George Santos filed a lawsuit against ABC Television, the Walt Disney Company, and host Jimmy Kimmel, accusing Kimmel of deceiving him into making Cameo videos that were later used to ridicule him on Kimmel’s late-night show, the Associated Press reported.
After Santos was expelled from the House in December, he started capitalizing on his image using Cameo, an app that enables celebrities to sell personalized videos to users.
In the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, Santos alleged that Kimmel used fake names to get him to record Cameo videos that the late-night host then featured on his show to make fun of Santos.
According to the New York Post, which first reported on the lawsuit, Kimmel created fake user profiles on Cameo as part of the fraud.
Without knowing it, Santos made at least 14 videos requested by phony users created by Jimmy Kimmel for which the former congressman was paid $500 each, according to the lawsuit.
Santos is claiming copyright infringement, breach of contract, fraudulent inducement, and unjust enrichment, arguing that Kimmel set up the phony users to induce the former congressman to make the videos as a way to capitalize and ridicule Santos’ “gregarious personality.”
The videos Kimmel purchased were featured in a segment on his show titled, “Will Santos Say It?” In one of the videos, Santos congratulated a woman who cloned her schnauzer, Adolf. In another, Santos offered his congratulations to the supposed winner of a beef-eating contest.
When the segment aired in December, Kimmel even joked about the possibility that Santos would sue him for fraud, according to NBC News.
Santos’ attorney, Robert Fantone, told the Associated Press that while Kimmel’s fake video requests may have been funny, they were a “clear violation of copyright law.”
The former congressman is seeking $750,000 in statutory damages for the five videos Kimmel aired.
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