Fox News agreed to pay $12 million to Abby Grossberg, a former producer for Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo, who alleged the Fox Corp.-backed outlet had coerced her into providing false testimony in a deposition related to a recent defamation suit levied by Dominion Voting Systems as well as operating a hostile and discriminatory workplace.
In her suit, filed in the Southern District of the State of New York earlier this year, Grossberg alleged she was harassed and forced to give inaccurate information in the Dominion matter, which Fox agreed to settle for $787.5 million in April.
Parisis G. Filippatos, an attorney for Grossberg, did not respond immediately to a query seeking comment. “We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation,” Fox News said in a statement.
Grossberg had alleged that Fox News attorneys tried to “coach, manipulate, and coerce Ms. Grossberg to deliver shaded and/or incomplete answers during her sworn deposition testimony, which answers were clearly to her reputational detriment but greatly benefitted Fox News.” She also claimed that she was forced to work in a difficult work environment, one where Carlson staffers regularly made crude remarks about women and Jews.
Fox has paid out millions to end litigation tied to allegations that it aired false claims about Dominion Voting’s actions and influence on the 2020 election. Fox News still faces a second defamation suit from a Smartmatic, a second voting technology company that was invoked by Fox News opinion hosts in the aftemath of President Biden’s 2020 victory. Smartmatic has filed a massive $2.7 billion suit against Fox News that is still pending. Both suits allege that Fox News falsely claimed the companies had rigged the election, repeated items about the matter and then refused to engage in efforts to set the record straight. The 2020 election was not fixed and its results were certified by multiple legal processes.
Some of Grossberg’s allegations, captured in taped interviews, were released as the Dominion trial got underway, putting Fox News’ attorneys under scrutiny for whether they had made her information available in the proceedings’ discovery process.
