Fox News settles with former Tucker Carlson producer for $12M

NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News will pay one of its former producers $12 million to settle her claims that she faced a discriminatory workplace and that the network tried to coerce her into giving false testimony in Dominion Inc.’s defamation lawsuit against the network, her lawyer said Friday.

The payout to Abby Grossberg will settle all litigation that she brought against Fox Corp., Fox News Network and her former co-workers, including former Fox host Tucker Carlson.

The settlement was revealed with the filing of a “Notice of Voluntary Dismissal” in a lawsuit she had filed this year in Manhattan federal court.

Although the notice did not reference the terms of the settlement, Grossberg’s attorney, Parisis G. Filippatos, said in an interview that his client will receive $12 million.

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

The lawsuit claimed that Fox’s legal team “coerced, intimidated, and misinformed” Grossberg during preparations for her testimony in a legal battle between the network and Dominion, an elections technology company.

She maintained in the lawsuit that she had received “damaging and woefully inferior and inadequate legal representation” compared to male counterparts at Fox News and that the experience had resulted in “irretrievable reputational and emotional harm.”

In April, Fox agreed to pay more than $787 million to settle a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems over the network’s airing of false claims following the 2020 presidential election. The settlement was reached shortly before Carlson was expected to be called to testify.

Less than a week later, on April 24, Carlson, the network’s most popular personality, was fired.

In her lawsuit, Grossberg had asserted that Carlson’s show had a cruel and misogynistic workplace, and that she had been pressured to give misleading testimony in the Dominion case.