Fox News to Pay $12 Million to Settle Ex-Producer Abby Grossberg’s Suit
The accusations against Fox by Ms. Grossberg, 42, sprang partly from the Dominion case. In March, she filed a lawsuit in Delaware, claiming that Fox coerced her into lying in sworn testimony she gave in the case. Ms. Grossberg amended her witness testimony before the Dominion trial, presenting another hurdle for Fox’s legal team, which had already been dealt a series of blows in pretrial rulings.
Ms. Grossberg also filed a separate lawsuit in New York that accused Fox and Mr. Carlson of allowing a culture of rampant misogyny. She said she had been subjected to sexist and antisemitic harassment during her time as the head of booking on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
Fox fired Ms. Grossberg four days after she filed the two lawsuits, saying in a statement at the time that she had disclosed privileged information about the Dominion case. She withdrew the Delaware suit in May, but her lawyer said at the time that they planned to refile in New York.
Ms. Grossberg joined Fox News in 2019 as a senior producer for the host Maria Bartiromo. In August 2022, she moved to Mr. Carlson’s team as the head of booking.
In her lawsuit, Ms. Grossberg said she found a workplace tainted by misogyny and harassment, where male producers were openly sexist to her and her co-workers, made crude jokes and had decorated the space with photos of Nancy Pelosi, then the House speaker, in a swimsuit showing cleavage.
Ms. Grossberg never met Mr. Carlson, who worked mostly from his homes in Florida and Maine, but she corresponded with him frequently over email, text and video calls. Mr. Carlson’s staff in New York was led by Mr. Wells, the senior executive producer. (Mr. Wells was fired by Fox in April.)
After filing her lawsuits, Ms. Grossberg drip-fed audio recordings from her time at Fox to other media organizations. The recordings showed, among other things, Mr. Carlson’s immense influence on the Republican Party; an admission by Rudolph W. Giuliani, lawyer to former President Donald J. Trump, that he didn’t have evidence of voter fraud; and discussions between Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ms. Bartiromo about his attempts to audit the 2020 election results.