Tucker Carlson has insisted he will “not be silenced” after Fox News sent a cease-and-desist letter ordering him to stop releasing shows on Twitter.
The rightwing network has been locked in a bitter contractual despite with its former primetime anchor since he left in the aftermath of the $787m Dominion Voting Systems payout in April.
Last week, Fox’s attorneys wrote to Carlson demanding he stop posting “Tucker on Twitter” videos, whose first two episodes attracted a combined 169 million views.
In a statement to Axios, Carlon’s lawyer Harmeet Dhillon said: “Doubling down on the most catastrophic programming decision in the history of the cable news industry, Fox is now demanding that Tucker Carlson be silent until after the 2024 election.”
“Tucker will not be silenced by anyone... He is a singularly important voice on matters of public interest in our country, and will remain so,” Mr Dhillon added.
He told Axios that Fox News continued to “ignore the interests of its viewers, not to mention its shareholder obligations”.
Carlon remains under contract at Fox until the end of 2024, and continues to draw his rumoured $25m annual salary.
In May, he accused Fox of breaching the terms of the contract by claiming that Fox leaked his private communications and settled with Dominion in a way that harmed his reputation and future business prospects.
Fox has denied the claims and maintains that Carlson’s firing was not linked to the Dominion settlement, which came after the network was sued for pushing lies about the 2020 presidential election.
In his first “Tucker on Twitter” show released last week, Carlson described Ukraine’s Jewish president Volodymyr Zelensky as “sweaty and rat-like”, in comments widely interpreted to be anti-semitic.
The monologue also focused on conspiracies about UFOs, the assassination of John F Kennedy and Jeffrey Epstein’s death.
In his second clip, Carlson echoed Kremlin propaganda by claiming that it was “obvious” Ukrainian forces were responsible for the destruction of the Kakhovka dam.
Carlson’s producer Justin Wells said on Twitter that the next episode will be released on Tuesday where he will respond to Donald Trump’s indictment.
Axios reported that several big names are being lined up as guests.
Twitter owner Elon Musk has previously said the social media platform does not have a content deal with Carlson.
Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
