Who is Abby Grossberg and why is she suing Fox News?
A senior producer for Tucker Carlson is suing Fox News claiming that she was set up to be a scapegoat in $1.6 billion Dominion defamation lawsuit.
Fox News is facing a pair of new lawsuits in relation to the Dominion defamation case, this time from a senior producer for Tucker Carlson. Abby Grossberg, who also worked for Maria Bartiromo, claims that the network set her up to be blamed for the lies that were promoted in relation to the false narrative that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen.
The network is being sued for $1.6 billion by Dominion Voting Systems for promoting baseless claims that the company’s voting machines had a hand in stealing the election from then-president Donald Trump despite knowing that they were bogus. Grossberg alleges in her lawsuits, which were filed in Delaware and New York, that “Fox News Attorneys acted as agents and at the behest of Fox News to misleadingly coach, manipulate, and coerce” her to give misleading testimony to protect on-air talent, executives and Fox Corporation.
Why is Abby Grossberg suing Fox News?
Grossberg worked as a senior booking producer for Bartiromo at the time of the November 2020 elections. The Fox News star actively promoted the false narrative that the 2020 election had been rigged against Trump and repeatedly welcomed on-air guests who peddled in conspiracy theories related to the matter.
One such was Sidney Powell, a prominent Trump ally who filed lawsuits alleging massive misconduct in the 2020 presidential election. The day before Powell was brought on air she shared an email with Bartiromo from the source for her claims, which the author, who says that she had been “internally decapitated,” herself described the fraud claims as “pretty wackadoodle.”
That email was forwarded to Grossberg at the time, and when asked about whether it should have been used as part of any news segments under oath by Dominion lawyers she said that it “isn’t something that I would use right now as reportable for air.” When asked if she thought it’s important to correct someone saying something untrue, Grossberg said: “no.”
Grossberg alleges that Fox’s legal team reacted positively to her giving “misleading and evasive answers” instead of what she really felt. However, that by doing so, she unwittingly was shifting responsibility away from higher-ups and the network and onto herself. As well, opening herself up to civil and criminal liability for perjury.
Contrary to her male colleagues, she alleges that she wasn’t allowed to review and correct the transcripts of her deposition shortly thereafter, but instead only once she had been citied in Dominion’s legal briefs.
Claims of sexism at Fox News
The legal filings by Grossberg’s lawyers also dished out allegations of rampant sexism and misogyny at the network. When she went to work for Carlson, Fox’s top prime-time host and one of the defendants in the New York lawsuit, she accuses him and other male superiors of making derogatory comments about women including Bartiromo and another female host, Jeanine Pirro.
One of the alleged examples of the misogyny included images of the then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi “in a plunging bathing suit revealing her cleavage” posted around the workplace. Another was a poll on two separate occasions of staffers on which of candidates for Michigan governor, both female, they thought were hotter and would rather have sex with.
Grossberg has been placed on forced administrative leave from her job according to her lawyer.