The Daily Caller is reporting that a phone call from a lawyer for Fox News (FNC) may be integral to proving Tucker Carlson's breach of contract and fraud accusations against his former employer.
Carlson first made the claims against FNC nearly two weeks ago. The onetime king of cable news argues his contract, which prevents him from starting a new show with a rival network before 2025, was voided following the disclosure of text messages and videos intended to embarrass him.
His attorneys indicated he would take legal action against the network if he were not allowed to start a new business venture.
In the letter to Chief Legal Counsel Viet Dinh and Irena Briganti, senior vice president of corporate communications, Carlson's legal team accused Fox employees — even “Rupert Murdoch himself” — of breaking their promises to not disparage him “intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth.”
The Caller explained that Dinh allegedly contacted a confidant of Carlson on May 3 to express regret at how the show ended and to stress that Fox News had “not authorized” any leaks.
Dinh said that network executives told Briganti she'd be terminated if she was caught leaking.
Notably, Dinh added that FNC insiders suspected a member of the board of Fox Corporation was sharing the footage to generate negative press coverage and speaking to reporters without authorization.
Carlson initially believed the culprit was either former House Speaker Paul Ryan or Anne Dias-Griffin, a wealthy French-American investor and philanthropist.
His team has since ruled out Ryan and believe Dias-Griffin was behind the smear campaign, including the leaks to Media Matters, as The Daily Caller reports:
“It strains credulity that, immediately after agreeing to pay almost $780 million to settle serious allegations of misconduct that a member of Fox's Board of Directors would be engaging in an attempted smear campaign by illegally leaking information about Tucker Carlson,” Freedman said. “However, we have to trust that it is true when the Chief Legal Officer informs Tucker that he believes it to be the case.”
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Leaks to the media included private text messages sent by Carlson along with behind-the-scenes footage of Carlson joking with coworkers prior to taping his show.
Daily Caller reached out to Briganti to ask if Fox News was internally investigating leaks from the board of directors. Daily Caller also asked Briganti for comment on her alleged termination threat. Daily Caller phoned Dinh at his office and his personal line and was not able to get hold of him by press time. (Disclosure: Carlson is a co-founder of the Daily Caller.)
Brigante called these claims “categorically false” and sent the Caller two letters from Fox's legal team. One letter was a cease and desist addressed to Media Matters — a site dedicated to smearing conservatives with deceptive articles and manipulated videos — which published a series of behind-the-scenes videos of Tucker. The other was a letter Fox News sent to Dominion alleging the company leaked information turned over during the discovery process in Dominion's lawsuit, an allegation the company has denied publicly.
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Go Tucker Go awesome
Leaking, not only from the lower bodily sphincters, is a despicable situation. Worse than kiss-and-tell, to damage someone’s career or ruin someone’s life.