Fox News settles for $12 million with ex-producer who alleged intimidation during Dominion suit

Following Abby Grossberg’s claims that Fox News coerced her into making false or misleading statements during the network’s recent legal battle with Dominion Voting Systems, Grossberg is getting a $12-million settlement, her lawyer announced Friday.

In exchange, Grossberg — formerly a producer at Fox News — will settle all litigation she had brought against the media giant and its employees, including recently fired Fox host Tucker Carlson.

“We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation,” Fox News said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Although Grossberg maintained the legitimacy of her legal claims in the wake of the payout, she said she was “heartened” that the company took her claims seriously.

“I am hopeful, based on our discussions with Fox News today, that this resolution represents a positive step by the Network regarding its treatment of women and minorities in the workplace,” she added in the statement.

Formerly Carlson’s head of booking, Grossberg had alleged that the right-wing talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was rife with bullying, sexism and antisemitism; she was fired in March after filing her suit. Before working with Carlson, she’d been senior booking producer for Maria Bartiromo’s weekly show “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Grossberg also alleged that Fox’s lawyers coerced and intimidated her as she prepared to testify in Dominion’s defamation suit against the network — and that the legal representation she got at Fox was far worse than what her male colleagues received.

Grossberg also said Fox attorneys manipulated her testimony to make her seem like “an inept journalist who ignored relevant warnings” and to minimize how overworked she was.

The result, she claimed, was “irretrievable reputational and emotional harm,” with herself and Bartiromo scapegoated in the Dominion lawsuit as “sacrificial female lambs.”

Fox News has previously denied Grossberg’s claims, saying they are “riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”

A statement from Grossberg’s deposition — in which she said that correcting inaccurate statements made on her shows wasn’t important — had been cited by the voting-technology firm Dominion in a legal filing as evidence that Fox News leaders knew they were broadcasting false claims about the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

“This was not the testimony Ms. Grossberg wanted to give,” her lawsuit said, “but she had been conditioned and felt coerced to give this response that simultaneously painted her in a negative light as a professional.”

In March, Grossberg altered her deposition testimony, issuing updates saying that her workload on “Sunday Morning Futures” made it hard to verify guests’ claims and that she saw some colleagues as untrustworthy political activists rather than true journalists.

The former producer also played a role in a judge citing Fox News for “discovery misconduct” after it was revealed in her revised testimony that the company had not turned over to the court recordings of conversations with former President Trump’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.

The conversations in question took place before a Nov. 15, 2020 appearance on “Sunday Morning Futures” and included Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, acknowledging the lack of evidence for his voter fraud claims. Grossberg said they were recorded on her phone and then turned over to Fox, but omitted from discovery because they would damage the network’s case.

Fox News ultimately paid Dominion $787.5 million to settle the company’s suit alleging that the network aired false claims of voter fraud in the race between Trump and the ultimate winner of the election, Joe Biden.

It was one of the largest defamation settlements in history. Fox News ultimately admitted to having broadcast inaccurate information about Dominion.

The Associated Press was used in this report.