Hear from the attorney for a former Fox News producer who is suing the network
Tonight, new court filings reveal Fox News has fired the producer who's suing the network over her testimony in the Dominion case. Abby Grossberg worked with Maria Bartiromo and Tucker Carlson. She accused Fox News lawyers of coercing her into giving misleading testimony. She says that testimony gave cover to network leaders and talent who knowingly pushed election lies and conspiracy theories about Dominion voting systems. Grossberg's latest court filing amends deposition statements that she made last year, including one in which she had expressed trust for Fox producers. And she now wants to change that testimony to this. She now wants to go on the record with this, quote, no, I don't trust all of the producers at Fox.
There are activists, not journalists, and they impose their political agendas on the programming. Grossberg also claims she was subjected to a toxic and sexist work environment at Fox News. For its part, the network denies wrongdoing regarding Grossberg and separately maintains, of course, that it never defamed Dominion. This is one of the biggest lawsuits going on in the country. But here now to respond is Abby Grossberg's lawyer, Jerry Filippatos. And I really appreciate you're taking the time here to explain this. So let's just start first with your client goes into a deposition.
She gives sworn testimony and the council who had advised her prior to that are Fox News council. And she says she was forced and intimidated into giving things that were misleading and to saying things that she didn't believe were true. What exactly did they instruct her to do? So let's just step back one step and just talk about the fact that it wasn't just the actual deposition testimony. It was how she was prepared for the deposition. And I would just say that she's not changing her testimony. She's actually delivering her testimony the way it should have been delivered, uninhibited, free of coercion, free of intimidation. So she, in fact, when she was first asked to appear to perhaps give testimony, she asked in her first prep session with the attorneys.
And by the way, it wasn't just in house Fox council was also outside council as well. So she had four attorneys there. Four attorneys. Yeah. Okay. One's enough usually, right? Yeah. But so she started off by saying, do I need my own attorney? Because it so happens that Ms.
Bartiromo, who shows she was on and I'm sure we'll get later into her whole history. But it's also important to know that the deposition prep and testimony was taking place as she was transitioning from Ms. Bartiromo's show to Mr. Carlson's show. So she gets in there first session. They, you know, they tell her to come in. She comes in.
And the first thing she asks is, do I need my own attorney? Because Maria has her own attorney. She told me so. And she's Abby speaking. And the Fox attorney said, oh, no, no, no, you don't need your own attorney. They just complicate things and you'll be fine. I mean, you're one of the first witnesses that we're preparing. But you know, as long as you cooperate, everything will be fine.
So. As long as you cooperate. Exactly. So now she's starting to set the record straight. Now, Fox is saying that this, she's just making these claims because she had a critical performance review that she was fired because she shared privileged information. This is their argument. Their statement is we were clear that if she violated our instructions, we were clear that if she violated our instructions, Fox would take appropriate action, including termination.
Ms. Grossberg ignored those communications. What's your response? Okay. So, I mean, let's just start with the fact that those arguments have now been once voluntarily dismissed by Fox attorneys before a judge could take a look at them because frankly, they probably were embarrassed to go before the judge and make these arguments, which are absolutely frivolous. And the second time they made the argument was in our Southern District case where we allege hostile work environment, misogyny, chauvinism, just a toxic work environment, especially on the Tucker Carlson show. On Tucker Carlson show you're saying specifically. Yeah.
So, it is just almost unbelievable that they're taking the position that they fired her on Friday because she was insubordinate. How was she insubordinate? She was insubordinate by actually saying, I'm the victim of discrimination. And by the way, I don't want to lie anymore or be forced to come close to lying. So, the question is now, there's a text exchange that Ms. Grossberg shared. She texted Barteromo, to be honest, our audience doesn't want to hear about a peaceful transition. They still have hope to which Barteromo answers yes, agree.
Now, those texts, that one exchange there, it's one exchange, but seems to suggest that they both knew that this was BS and they both were just discussing what the viewers wanted to hear, which is that this was rigged and this was unfair and this is in the context of dominion. What do you say to that? Well, I mean, I think we can slice and dice any particular exchange that two people have. First of all, Ms. Barteromo is the on-air talent. Ms. Grossberg is there to essentially make sure that Ms. Barteromo has what she needs.
She has her own position. She has her own point of view. So obviously, Abby is not going to exactly argue with her if she wants to have this. Overtext. Well, exactly. And I think that text by itself just says kind of the truth, right? Because I mean, Fox's audience, I mean, we all know, is an interesting. That's where they went here.
Right. Will Ms. Grossberg testify on behalf of dominion? Well, you know, will she take the stand? I say she's already made a stand because she's already told the truth. She's already gone out there, exposed herself, and taken on this gigantic network so that she can tell the truth. I'll tell you one thing. If she does testify, it's certainly not going to be on behalf of Fox. And they had the audacity this last week to go before the judge in Delaware and put her on their witness list.
Like, she's going to be their witness. That's not going to happen. If she chooses to testify, it certainly will be for dominion. All right. Well, Jerry, thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
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