By Jack Queen
(Reuters) – Fox Information on Friday requested legal professionals for Dominion Voting Techniques to analyze whether or not they leaked controversial inside messages from ousted Fox host Tucker Carlson that had been supplied in proof for his or her latest defamation lawsuit.
The requests, which had been made in letters launched by Fox, got here after a number of information retailers revealed racist and sexist remarks by Carlson contained in leaked inside messages and recordings.
Fox Information and its mother or father firm Fox Corp stated these got to Dominion as a part of the lawsuit, which claimed Fox defamed Dominion by airing false election-rigging claims. The fabric was to stay confidential per court docket orders and the phrases of the community’s $787.5 million settlement with the Denver-based voting know-how firm final month.
Fox requested that Dominion’s legal professionals at Farnan LLP “instantly make an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this inexcusable launch of confidential discovery materials” and report the findings by the top of Monday.
Dominion denied the supplies got here from the corporate or any of its legal professionals. “No one related to Dominion shared these confidential supplies with the press,” the corporate stated.
In a separate letter to Dominion legal professionals at Susman Godfrey LLP and Clare Locke LLP, Fox stated the disclosures “violate the textual content and spirit” of the settlement settlement, which “requires return or destruction” of all confidential discovery supplies.
Fox is in search of to comprise the general public relations fallout from the leaks. The community on Friday despatched a letter to the left-leaning watchdog group Media Issues demanding that it stop publishing leaked footage of Carlson on set.
Media Issues President Angelo Carusone stated in a press release that “reporting on newsworthy leaked materials is a cornerstone of journalism” and that it was “absurd” for Fox to argue in any other case.
Dominion alleged in its lawsuit that Fox knowingly unfold false claims that its ballot-counting machines had been used to rig the 2020 U.S. election towards former Republican President Donald Trump and in favor of Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Fox denied the claims however settled the case in Delaware Superior Court docket. The deal got here simply earlier than opening statements had been set to start in what promised to be essentially the most intently watched media trial in many years, that includes testimony from Fox Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch.
Carlson, a staple of primetime cable information and Fox’s greatest star, was abruptly fired simply days later. Media retailers together with the New York Occasions reported that the choice got here after Fox’s board noticed Carlson’s inside messages.
The Occasions reported on Tuesday that Fox was notably involved by a Carlson message – which was redacted in public variations of court docket filings – through which he criticized Trump supporters for beating up an outnumbered leftist demonstrator as a result of that was “not how white males combat.”
The Day by day Beast reported on Friday on a textual content message through which Carlson used a misogynistic slur, the second publicly reported occasion of him doing so.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Further reporting by Helen Coster; Enhancing by Cynthia Osterman)
