Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, settled a pair of lawsuits against the network and Carlson for $12 million, her attorney Parisis Filippatos said Friday.
Grossberg sued the network, Carlson, its parent company and a number of executives this year alleging that she was harassed, retaliated against and set up to take the fall for Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit against Fox News. She said she was later fired for going public with her claims. At the time, Fox News denied her allegations.
In her lawsuits, the former producer, who also worked for Maria Bartiromo’s show, described Fox News as a toxic, misogynistic environment.
“We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation,” a Fox News spokesman said in a statement.
Dominion accused both Fox News programs of defamation, and Grossberg was intimately involved in the production of some of the challenged broadcasts, according to documents released in the case. Fox News settled Dominion’s suit for $787.5 million in April, moments before opening arguments were set to be heard in court.
Dominion said Fox News had allowed baseless conspiracy theories to proliferate on the air about the company’s voting machines’ “rigging” the 2020 presidential election against Donald Trump.
Grossberg was an active character in the Dominion litigation: Her deposition and emails were released amid thousands of pages of evidence made public during the court proceedings.
In filings, Grossberg sought to correct her deposition testimony, which she said had been improperly influenced by Fox News lawyers. Her lawyers released taped interviews from her time at the network, and suggested that Fox News’ attorneys had not properly collected in discovery. A Fox News spokesperson said at the time that the network had “complied with its discovery obligations.”
Dominion’s attorneys played some of the audio in court, prompting a Delaware judge to sanction Fox News for withholding evidence.
In a statement, Grossberg said she was glad the network took her allegations seriously.
“While I stand by my publicly filed claims and allegations, in light of today’s settlement of $12 million, pursuant to which I have now withdrawn those claims, I am heartened that Fox News has taken me and my legal claims seriously.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 said.
Days after Fox News settled with Dominion, it abruptly canceled “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” one of the most watched shows on American cable news.
Carlson told NPR of Grossberg’s allegations: “I know nothing about her. I never met her.”
In a tweet, Carlson’s former producer, Justin Wells, said he and other Carlson employees named in the suit “deny Ms. Grossberg’s claims and allegations against Tucker Carlson and his team. Nevertheless, we are glad that Fox has settled this matter and that all sides can move forward.”
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