(NEW YORK) — The Fox News producer who sued the network last week alleging she was “conditioned and coerced” to give false testimony in the billion-dollar defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems has now been fired, according to amended complaints filed on Monday morning.
In amended complaints filed in Delaware and New York Monday morning, former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg expanded on her earlier complaints, alleging that Fox News attorneys directed her to testify during her deposition in a way that would “inculpate” her and host Maria Bartiromo while “exculpating … certain blame worthy male colleagues.”
“Ms. Grossberg’s deposition testimony, as manufactured by Fox News, put Ms. Grossberg and Ms. Bartiromo squarely on the frontline of the Dominion/Fox Lawsuit so they could be scapegoated as sacrificial female lambs,” the complaint alleges.
Dominion filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News in March 2021, accusing the network of knowingly pushing false conspiracy theories about the voting machine company in the wake of the 2020 election, in order to combat concerns over ratings and viewer retention.
Grossberg filed a pair of lawsuits last week accusing the network of fostering a “toxic atmosphere victimizing women.”
The former producer has now left open the door to testifying on behalf of Dominion at trial, saying in the complaint that she “will never testify on behalf of Fox News” and that she will “only testify — if at all — on behalf of Dominion.”
In a statement responding to Grossberg’s new complaint Monday, a Fox News representative said, “Like most organizations, FOX News Media’s attorneys engage in privileged communications with our employees as necessary to provide legal advice. Last week, our attorneys advised Ms. Grossberg that, while she was free to file whatever legal claims she wished, she was in possession of our privileged information and was not authorized to disclose it publicly.”
“We were clear that if she violated our instructions, Fox would take appropriate action including termination,” the statement said. “Ms. Grossberg ignored these communications and chose to file her complaint without taking any steps to protect those portions containing Fox’s privileged information. We will continue to vigorously defend Fox against Ms. Grossberg’s unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”
As part of her new allegations, Grossberg in the Delaware complaint claims she was unable to review or correct her deposition transcript despite asking to do so at least six times. She claims that “her testimony might not be completely accurate.”‘
“Ms. Grossberg attests that she would have answered differently had she not been conditioned and intimidated by the Fox News Attorneys,” the complaint states, in reference to one of Grossberg’s answers that was used in Dominion’s public filings.
Grossberg, a producer with Tucker Carlson Tonight, alleges that after being deposed by Dominion attorneys, she communicated to Fox’s lawyers “that Mr. Carlson’s name had come up, but that she protected him,” according to the amended complaint. Specifically, Grossberg alleges that during her deposition she was shown a text message of Carlson calling Trump-aligned attorney Sidney Powell the “C word,” which she says she falsely testified did not bother her.
Referring to Carlson’s senior producer, Alexander McCaskill, the complaint alleges that “Mr. McCaskill said he was happy with the answers she had given and suggested they order the staff lunch to celebrate her defense of Mr. Carlson’s misogynistic-laden texts that were shown to her.”
In reality, the complaint states, Grossberg “knew full well, largely based on public information, that Mr. Carlson was very capable of using such disgusting language about women in the workplace.” But, says the complaint, she was “was conditioned to constantly remember that she could not do anything to jeopardize” her position on Carlson’s staff, “so she again kept quiet.”
The complaint alleges that Grossberg was fired from the company on Friday in “yet another thinly veiled act of retaliation.”
“When Fox News realized that it could not stop Ms. Grossberg from speaking her truth to the world in her immutable ‘public filings’ — either by intimidation, obfuscation, or baseless attempts at judicial intervention — it terminated her employment,” the complaint says.
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