The attorney for Fox whistleblower Abby Grossberg says when his client went to work on Tucker Carlson’s show, “she was subject to one of the most vile, toxic work environments I’ve seen in my 30 years of practice.”
Gerry Filippatos spoke to MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Friday. He said that Grossberg was recruited to produce Maria Bartiromo‘s show before moving on to Carlson’s. She was in the middle of the professional move when she sat for a deposition in the Dominion defamation case. Dominion sued for $1.6 billion, claiming Fox lied about the voting systems’ attempt to help overturn the 2020 election.
FILIPPATOS: The deposition prep, and actual deposition happened as she was going from Maria Bartiromo to Tucker Carlson. So, in deposition prep, they show her this email, and they say, you know, Dominion’s attorneys may show you something like this and say, are you offended by it, right? C-word, all sorts of horrible stuff.
WALLACE: I can only imagine.
FILIPPATOS: Which, by the way, was bandied about like “hello,” apparently, in the newsroom there.
WALLACE: In the shocking-but-not-surprising category.
Grossberg alleges that Fox attempted to blame her and Bartiromo for the conspiracy theories that aired on Fox about the 2020 elections and is now suing.
Filippatos explained that Grossberg, who was ultimately fired by Fox, has two cases pending against the network: In the Delaware case, “she is essentially alleging that there was a civil conspiracy to throw her under the bus, get her to testify falsely, to cover up Fox’s misdoings” against Dominion Voting Systems, Filippatos said.
He called the second case, filed in the Southern District of New York, “a very unique — even for me, who’s been doing this for 30 years practicing employment discrimination law — a uniquely strong case,” alleging different forms of workplace discrimination.
Fox settled the defamation case with Dominion this week for $787.5 million. The network next faces a $2.7 billion suit by Smartmatic, whose attorneys say they will also ask for a full retraction and apology.
Fox responded to Grossberg’s claims:
FOX News engaged an independent outside counsel to immediately investigate the concerns raised by Ms. Grossberg, which were made following a critical performance review. Her allegations in connection with the Dominion case are baseless and we will continue to vigorously defend Fox against her unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees.
Before the MSNBC interview ended, Filippatos turned to the camera to deliver a message straight to Fox’s lawyers.
“I challenge you to debate me,” he said. “I will go on Fox air with any of you, all of you, and you can show me one place, just one, in any of our public pleadings, where we have said a falsehood. I can show you probably 50 in yours.”
Watch the MSNBC clip above.
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