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

Fox News headquarters in Manhattan. 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. 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. 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.