Fox News’s Carlson: Podesta lawyer threatened ‘to shut down our reporting’

Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Tony Podesta’s lawyer sent the network a “snarling legal threat” over his reporting on Podesta’s lobbying firm being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his Russia probe, demanding it “immediately cease and desist disseminating false and misleading reports about Mr. Podesta and the Podesta Group.”

At the top of his Monday show, Carlson reported that Podesta, the brother of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman, John Podesta, pointed the finger at Fox’s reporting as a reason for his resignation from his own company.

“Tony Podesta resigned as head of his company,” Carlson said. “His excuse? Us. That’s right. He blamed us. In his parting statement, Podesta said this, quote, ‘It is impossible to run a public affairs firm by Fox News and the right-wing media.'”

“Well, Podesta isn’t just complaining about us — he’s threatening us,” Carlson continued. “This afternoon, we got a letter from Geoff Garinther. It’s a lawyer with Venable LLP, a big law firm here in D.C. The letter demands that this show, quote, ‘immediately cease and desist disseminating false and misleading reports about Mr. Podesta and the Podesta Group.’”

{mosads}

“It demands we retract and delete all our prior reporting on the Podesta Group and warns if we don’t do this, quote, ‘Mr. Podesta may pursue legal action, including for damages, in order to fully protect his rights,’ ” Carlson said. 

The Podesta Group is one of the two unidentified companies referred to in the indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former business associate, Richard Gates. 

“Podesta’s lawyer wasn’t trying to inform us of anything, but to threaten us — to shut down our reporting on his client,” Carlson said. “One lawyer we talked to earlier today said the Podesta people have used this tactic with others before. It’s common — it’s an effort to use fear to control press coverage. We are not intimidated. We have ample evidence from Mueller’s indictment [and] from a number of confidential sources to paint a pretty clear picture of exactly what the Podesta Group was doing for years here in Washington.”

“We’ll let the facts speak for themselves,” he concluded. “And we’re confident the Mueller investigation will be revealing a lot more about Tony Podesta’s lobbying practices in the near future.”

Tony Podesta, who founded the left-leaning firm with his brother in 1988, resigned on Monday. 

While under investigation by Mueller, no charges have been made against Podesta or the Podesta Group.