Fox News settles lawsuit brought by ex-producer

Fox News has settled out of court with a former top producer who sued the network earlier this year, alleging a toxic and hostile workplace at the conservative media giant.

In a motion to dismiss filed Friday in the U.S. Southern District of New York, former Fox producer Abby Grossberg’s attorney said his client had voluntarily agreed to dismiss her lawsuit against Fox, and the talent at the network she worked under, including now-ousted pundit Tucker Carlson.

Terms of the settlement were not listed in the court filing, but the New York Times reported the network had agreed to pay Grossberg $12 million to settle her claims.

“We are pleased that we have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation,” a Fox News spokesperson told The Hill in a statement.

Grossberg alleged Fox’s lawyers pressured her to provide misleading information about internal editorial procedures while it fought a blockbuster defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, which stemmed from its coverage of false claims of voter fraud being promoted by former President Trump and his allies.

Fox denied Grossberg’s claim at the time and agreed to pay Dominion $787 million to settle the defamation claims brought by Dominion in April.

In her lawsuit, and through a series of media interviews, Grossberg said she had been fired in retaliation and claimed a rampant culture of sexism at the network as she worked as a top producer for big name Fox personalities such as Carlson and Maria Bartiromo.

“They destroy people,” she told NBC in March, as Fox was set to go to trial against Dominion. “I realized that the answers that they wanted me to say were putting me in a very vulnerable position to be the company scapegoat.”

In a statement provided to the Times, Grossberg noted she was “heartened that Fox News has taken me and my legal claims seriously.”

“I am hopeful, based on our discussions with Fox News today, that this resolution represents a positive step by the network regarding its treatment of women and minorities in the workplace,” she said.