A former Tucker Carlson producer accusing Fox News of pressuring her into providing misleading testimony in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit filed amended legal complaints on Tuesday claiming there are secret Fox recordings of Rudy Giuliani and other Trump allies admitting they had no evidence to support their Dominion election fraud lies, according to The Daily Beast.
Abby Grossberg filed lawsuits in New York and Delaware accusing Fox News lawyers of coercing her into giving false testimony in a deposition in Dominion's $1.6 billion libel suit that would protect the network and its top talent and executives in the Dominion case.
"If such recordings exist, it could have a devastating impact on Fox's defense and potentially undermine it entirely and subject Fox and others with knowledge to sanctions and even potential criminal exposure if false statements and representations were made knowingly under oath or in Court," John Kaley, former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, told Salon.
"Fox has complied with its discovery obligations in the Dominion case," a Fox News spokesperson told The Daily Beast in a statement.
Grossberg served as a senior booking producer for Fox News host Maria Bartiromo before moving to Carlson's show. She was fired after filing a suit against the network, accusing them of discrimination and of coercing her into providing misleading testimony in the defamation case.
Fox News claimed it fired Grossberg for "improperly disclos[ing] information regarding the Dominion/Fox Lawsuit that the Company purportedly believed was privileged," according to her lawyers, CNN reported.
Dominion has accused Fox hosts and executives of damaging its reputation by repeatedly airing false claims after the 2020 presidential election suggesting the election software company changed or deleted votes to help President Joe Biden get elected.
In her suits, Grossberg said she and Bartiromo were being set up to take the fall for Fox's actions due to the company's culture of misogyny and discrimination. She claimed that she endured a toxic environment while working at Fox and was subject to harassment by male producers.
Public disclosure of the recordings "would prove to the world that Fox is a political arm of others and not a legitimate news organization and that nothing it broadcasts can be believed by anyone with an open mind," Kaley said.
Smartmatic subpoenaed Grossberg earlier this month, asking her to produce extensive documentation and records of communications regarding the claims aired on Fox about the 2020 presidential election, NBC News reported.
The voting software company is pursuing a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox for spreading false claims that Smartmatic technology was used to commit voter fraud in New York Supreme Court. Former host Lou Dobbs' show was canceled by Fox in February 2021 after he was named in the suit.
Allies of former President Donald Trump, including Giuliani, alleged on Fox News that Dominion and Smartmatic were involved in potential election fraud without providing any evidence.
In her motions to amend her complaints against Fox News, Grossberg alleged that she had recorded several conversations with Giuliani and former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell after the 2020 election, in preparation for their appearances on Bartiromo's show, according to The Daily Beast.
In a mid-November 2020 recording, Giuliani admitted to Bartiromo that the Trump campaign couldn't prove some of its Dominion allegations, Grossberg claims. When Bartiromo asked him what evidence he had implicating Dominion in rigging the election, Giuliani allegedly said "that's a little harder."
He also added that he had no evidence to back up the conspiracy theory that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had an interest in Dominion. "I've read that. I can't prove that," he said.
In another recording between Grossberg, Bartiromo, and someone described as a "high-ranking advisor to and spokesperson for President Trump and the Trump 2020 presidential campaign," the campaign official admitted "there were in fact no issues" with any purportedly fraudulent voting machines in Georgia, according to the amended complaint.
Dominion's underlying defamation case against Fox News is scheduled for trial starting April 17. First Amendment experts view this lawsuit as one of the most consequential defamation cases in recent years.
Fox News has denied any wrongdoing, arguing that they were reporting on notable allegations, which is protected by the First Amendment.
