Fox asks Dominion Voting to probe leaks of Tucker Carlson messages By Reuters

by Jack Quinn

(Reuters) – Fox News on Friday asked attorneys for Dominion Voting Systems to investigate whether they leaked controversial internal messages from ousted Fox host Tucker Carlson that were presented as evidence in their recent defamation lawsuit.

The requests, made in letters released by Fox, came after several news outlets published racist and sexist remarks by Carlson contained in leaked internal letters and recordings.

These were delivered to Dominion as part of the lawsuit, which alleged that Fox defamed Dominion by airing false allegations of election fraud, Fox News and its parent company Fox Corp. said. The material was to be kept confidential per court orders and the terms of the network’s $787.5 million settlement with the Denver-based voting technology company last month.

Fox asked Farnan LLP’s Dominion attorneys to “immediately conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this unwarranted release of classified discovery materials” and report the findings by the end of Monday.

Dominion denied that the material came from the company or any of its attorneys. “No one associated with Dominion shared these confidential materials with the press,” the company said.

In a separate letter to Dominion attorneys Susman Godfrey LLP and Clare Locke LLP, Fox said the disclosure of the information “violates the letter and spirit” of the settlement agreement, which “requires the return or destruction” of all classified discovery materials.

Fox is seeking to contain the PR fallout from the leaks. On Friday, the network sent a letter to left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters demanding that it stop publishing leaked footage of Carlson on set.

Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said in a statement that “reporting leaked newsworthy material is a cornerstone of journalism” and that it was “absurd” for Fox to argue otherwise.

Dominion alleged in its lawsuit that Fox knowingly made false claims that vote-counting machines were used to rig the 2020 US election against former Republican President Donald Trump and in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.

Fox denied the allegations but settled the case in the Delaware Supreme Court. The agreement came before opening statements began in what promised to be the most watched media trial in decades, which included testimony from Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Corp.

Carlson, a staple of major TV channels and Fox’s biggest stars, was suddenly fired just days later. Media outlets including The New York Times reported that the decision came after Fox’s board of directors saw Carlson’s internal letters.

The Times reported Tuesday that Fox was particularly concerned by Carlson’s letter — redacted in public copies of court filings — in which he chastised Trump supporters for beating an outnumbered left-wing protester because that “isn’t how white men fight.”

The Daily Beast reported on Friday a text message in which Carlson used misogynistic slurs, the second publicly reported instance of him doing so.