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Former senior producers of Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Maria Bartiromo are offering themselves as star witnesses in the Dominion Voting System’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the network.
Former producer Abby Grossberg has a proposal in amended lawsuits filed in federal court in New York and state court in Delaware, with Dominion lawsuits ongoing.Fox fired Grossberg last week After she sued the network for allegedly lying under oath and pressured them to downplay her claims of misogyny.
In legal documents, Grossberg alleges Fox’s attorneys “coerced, threatened and misled” her before being questioned by Dominion’s attorneys last September.
If the Dominion lawsuit goes to a jury next month as scheduled, the legal complaint will state that Grossberg “never will testify on behalf of Fox News in court” and will “voluntarily testify on behalf of Dominion.” I am only testifying to the
Dominion said Monday it has no comment on Grossberg’s complaint.
The company is suing Fox News for lies broadcast after the 2020 election. Fox News has repeatedly had guests claim, without evidence, that Dominion voting technology switched then-President Donald Trump’s votes for Joe Biden.
Grossberg worked as a senior booking producer for Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo before joining Carlson last year. Her complaint in Delaware focuses primarily on the actions of her Fox attorney who prepared her deposition. She cites two attorneys as defendants, Stephen Potenza and Leslie West, attorneys for Fox News, and Winston & Strawn, the outside law firm they preside.
Grossberg’s federal lawsuit, which includes numerous workplace sexism and anti-Semitism allegations, names Carlson as a defendant, along with the network and top executives.
Fox had sought an injunction against Grossberg to prevent him from publicly disclosing information related to the Dominion lawsuit, but dropped the lawsuit shortly after she filed it.
When asked about the reason for Grossberg’s dismissal, a Fox spokesperson said Monday: She was free to file any legal claim she wanted, but she was in possession of our confidential information and had no authority to publicly disclose it.”
“It was clear that Fox would take appropriate action, including termination, if she violated our instructions. We have elected to file a complaint without taking any action,” the statement continued.
Fox previously said it had hired outside counsel to investigate Grossberg’s concerns. The company says it has transformed the network’s culture under CEO Suzanne Scott. The late Fox News chairman Roger Ailes was ousted in 2016 after a string of sexual harassment accusations, which he denied.
Grossberg points to blame for top Fox News executives
Grossberg alleges that Fox’s attorneys encouraged her to give evasive and false answers while being dismissed by Dominion’s attorneys. A published errata (a legal document used to correct mistakes in deposition records) provides a more complete and possibly damaging answer.
Grossberg now says that then-Fox News executive David Clarke has approved a guest for Maria Bartiromo’s show in 2020. The content was locked,” he wrote, and he was the one who stepped in to challenge “questionable content.”
“Regarding Dominion-related coverage, I was allowed to receive critical broadcasts without evidence of any form of connection, which did not occur,” Grossberg’s filing states.
When asked about Clark in a September deposition, Grossberg told Dominion’s lawyers that it was “not fair” to say he disliked him. He says he created an environment and discriminated against women on Fox News.
She also alleges that Fox executives, including Clark, rejected her repeated requests for support, turned her over for a promotion, and gave preferential treatment to male colleagues instead.
Clark, who is currently an executive at Fox Weather, was an executive for the Fall 2020 Weekend Program.
Grossberg said that Maria Bartiromo “had a responsibility to respond to false statements.”
Dominion is the first TV network to predict a Biden victory in a key state in Arizona on election night 2020, but the company is hoping to win the support of millions of Trump fans who have turned away from Fox. accusing Fox of amplifying such false allegations against Fox, who was “obsessed” with ratings because they valued them.
In the new lawsuit, Grossberg retracted an affidavit to Dominion attorney Davida Brooks that Fox had no obligation to correct false claims made on the network’s shows. “[A]Guests had the right to answer as they wished, but it was Maria’s responsibility to counter factual remarks and follow-up questions.
She also admits that she received many messages from the Dominion trying to correct the falsehoods, but she didn’t read them all because at first glance “they all looked the same” and she said they were all very short. There was too much to do on the show to explain.
Grossberg also retracted a statement that she trusted the Fox producers she worked with. [the] Fox producers,” she added: “They are activists, not journalists, pushing their political agenda onto the show.”
Grossberg says he feared becoming a Dominion ‘star witness’
Fox News claims that the fraudulent election it broadcast was newsworthy in nature and justified its airtime.
Grossberg said that when she left a preparatory session with Fox’s lawyers, she “left the impression that Fox News had to downplay the importance of rating the show. It hints at the motivation behind why we allowed the Dominion story to air in the first place.” place. ”
She alleges that Fox’s attorneys implied in the deposition that she would be fired if she did not portray the network favorably.
“I was conditioned to constantly remember that I could do nothing to jeopardize my new status,” Grossberg said in his complaint. [as a senior producer for Tucker Carlson]She went silent again, including becoming the Dominion’s “Star Witness”.
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