Fox News to Pay $12 Million to Settle Ex-Producer’s Lawsuits

(Bloomberg) -- Fox News agreed to pay $12 million to a former producer to settle lawsuits claiming she endured sexist behavior while at the network and was coerced to give misleading answers in a deposition by Dominion Voting Systems Inc.

Fox settled the two cases filed by Abby Grossberg, her lawyers said in a statement Friday. Grossberg, who worked as a producer for Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday morning business show, alleged that she was not promoted to executive producer because she was a woman. 

She also claimed that Fox executives left Bartiromo’s show understaffed and tried to focus the blame for the Dominion lawsuit on the show because of an interview Bartiromo conducted in November 2020 with Sydney Powell, a Trump loyalist who made a series of wild, unsubstantiated claims about Dominion’s voting systems and how they were manipulated to swing the election to Joe Biden. 

“While I stand by my publicly filed claims and allegations, in light of today’s settlement of $12 million, pursuant to which I have now withdrawn those claims, I am heartened that Fox News has taken me and my legal claims seriously,” Grossberg said in a statement released by her lawyers. “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.”

Read more: Fox News Producer’s Secret Recordings Helped Spur Dominion Deal

A Fox spokesperson said the company was pleased to “have been able to resolve this matter without further litigation.”

--With assistance from Erik Larson.

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