Fox News appears to be on the verge of settling another significant lawsuit. Abby Grossberg, the former Fox News producer who filed two complaints against the cable news titan back in March, is in the final stages of finalizing out a settlement with the company, people familiar with the matter told CNN.
The terms of the settlement are not known right now, and it will be the fourth in a series of lawsuits the Murdochs have recently had deal with, the most notable one being the $1.6 billion defamation battle with voting tech company Dominion that the two parties ended up settling for $787.5 million.
Grossberg, most recently in charge of booking for Tucker Carlson Tonight and a senior producer for Maria Bartiromo, made a series of claims against the network in lawsuits that she filed just as the Dominion case was moving toward a trial.
Grossberg filed two lawsuits against the network, in New York and Delaware, respectively. She claimed that in September 2022, during preparations for her pre-trial deposition as part of the Dominion case, Fox lawyers coerced her into giving misleading testimony, coaching her in a way where she would avoid mentioning the names of prominent on-air talent and male executives, shielding them from any blame when it came to the matter of how Fox News covered false claims about the 2020 presidential election.
Grossberg also accused the network of sexism, and in her lawsuit claimed that she passed over for a top job on Bartiromo’s Fox News Sunday show because the network preferred it be filled by a male. She further claimed that Fox News executives referred to Bartiromo as a “crazy b**ch” and “menopausal.”
She further alleged the workspace for Carlson’s show was decorated with large photos of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “in a plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage,” and she described a culture at Carlson’s program in which women were subjected to crude terms and in which jokes about Jewish people were made out in the open.
Grossberg was placed on two-week administrative leave following her decision to file the lawsuits and fired shortly thereafter after disclosing what Fox said was privileged information about the company.
Fox News said that the company’s lawyers had advised Grossberg that “while she was free to file whatever legal claims she wished,” she was not allowed to disclose privileged information about the Dominion case. “We were clear that if she violated our instructions, Fox would take appropriate action, including termination,” the network said.
At the time of the firing, a network spokesperson added that the company would continue to “vigorously defend” itself against Grossberg’s claims, “which are riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”
Smartmatic, another election technology company suing Fox News, has also subpoenaed Grossberg to testify in its case against Fox News Media. Unlike Dominion, Smartmatic is demanding north of $2 billion from Fox.
Grossberg isn’t the only ex-Tucker Carlson Tonight producer making news. Two of her former colleagues at highly-rated 8 p.m. hour left the network this week — Alexander McCaskill, a senior producer and formerly the managing editor of Tucker Carlson Tonight, stated on Instagram that his last day at the network was Thursday. Thomas Fox, who was a senior editorial producer on the show, also left the program this week, the New York Times reported on Friday.
One of the Times’ sources said McCaskill and Fox had been in discussions to leave the network before Tuesday, when a chyron that appeared during Fox News 8 p.m. hour referring to President Biden a “wannabe dictator.”