Abby Grossberg, a former Tucker Carlson producer who’s accused Fox News of coercing her to give false testimony in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case, has been subpoenaed by another voting software firm suing the conservative cable giant over its 2020 election coverage.
Grossberg’s lawyers have since confirmed they’ve reached an agreement with Smartmatic lawyers to accept the subpoena, which according to the document, was served to Fox News on April 3.
Additionally, the ex-producer’s attorneys said it was “circumstantially significant” that Fox News dropped Grossberg from its witness list at the time Smartmatic’s subpoena was served.
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In a subpoena sent by Smartmatic on Monday, Grossberg was directed to produce any documentary evidence she possesses related to any potential malice on Fox’s part while airing election fraud claims about the voting-systems company. Specifically, the subpoena asks for any correspondence related to former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who peddled baseless conspiracy theories on Fox about “rigged” voting machines shortly after former President Donald Trump lost the election.
Similar to Dominion’s $1.6-billion suit, which goes to trial later this month, Smartmatic is suing Fox News for $2.7 billion over allegations that it knowingly aired false claims about the company in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Trump allies, such as Giuliani and Powell, repeatedly peddled debunked assertions on Fox airwaves that Dominion and Smartmatic flipped millions of votes to President Joe Biden and “stole” the White House from Trump.
Meanwhile, Grossberg’s legal team has claimed that after a Delaware judge ruled last month that the Dominion case would go to trial, Fox News pulled the ex-producer’s name from its witness list after she was subpoenaed by Smartmatic. Additionally, they insist that the evidence Grossberg made available to Fox was not provided to the Delaware court.
“While she was still employed by Fox News, Ms. Grossberg previously surrendered access to evidence of this nature to Fox News in connection with the $1.6 billion Dominion/Fox defamation lawsuit,” Grossberg’s attorneys Parisis G. Filippatos & Tanvir H. Rahman said in a statement.
“However, it does not appear that this evidence was actually provided to the Delaware Superior Court in that case prior to the court’s March 31, 2023, decision leaving open for trial the issue of whether Fox News acted with malice when publishing alleged defamatory material about Dominion Voting Systems, Inc,” the lawyers added. “Notably, on April 4, 2023, after being notified of Smartmatic’s subpoena to Ms. Grossberg, Fox News reversed course and omitted Ms. Grossberg from its witness list in the Dominion/Fox lawsuit without explanation.”
In a statement first provided to NBC News, a Fox News spokesperson said the right-wing network was unaware Smartmatic had issued a subpoena earlier in the week and had followed all court rules.
“Smartmatic has not notified Fox News of any subpoena issued to Ms. Grossberg in that case,” the spokesperson said. “With respect to the Dominion case, Fox News does not know what Ms. Grossberg’s attorney is talking about, and we have complied with our discovery obligations.”
The Fox flack added: “We are confident we will prevail as freedom of the press is foundational to our democracy and must be protected while the damages claims in this case are outrageous, unsupported and not rooted in sound financial analysis, serving as nothing more than a flagrant attempt to deter our journalists from doing their jobs.”
In response to Fox’s remarks, Grossberg’s legal team fired back by noting that the network was made aware of the Smartmatic subpoena on April 3.
“To a litigator’s seasoned eye, the fact that Fox received notice of Smartmatic’s subpoena requesting documents of Ms. Grossberg, which go to the heart of the issue of malice, and contemporaneously Fox dropped Ms. Grossberg from its witness list in the Dominion case, where that same issue is to go before the jury, is certainly circumstantially significant,” Filippatos said in a statement.
As for the network’s claims that it was unaware of what Grossberg’s attorney were “talking about” and the former producer’s legal claims are “riddled with false allegations,” Filippatos issued a fiery retort.
“The last I checked, ignorance is not a defense that is generally recognized under the law; moreover, if Fox News is so certain of the falsity of Ms. Grossberg’s damning factual allegations against it, why doesn’t it use some of the high-priced legal talent it has on retainer, defending it from multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuits in two states, to bring on an action for defamation against Ms. Grossberg, or me for that matter,” he said. “We stand ready to defend any such frivolous action, because – as unacquainted as Fox News might be with this legal concept—judging by its filings in the defamation suits against it—truth is an absolute defense to a claim of defamation.”
Grossberg, who was fired from Fox News last month after filing an explosive lawsuit against the network, worked as a senior booking producer for Fox host Maria Bartiromo during the 2020 election. She claims the network’s lawyers pressured her into giving misleading testimony during her Dominion deposition, and that she and Bartiromo were being made into scapegoats for Fox’s coverage of the election.
Grossberg’s lawsuit also alleges she was subjected to a toxic and misogynistic workplace environment, especially after she left Bartiromo’s show and began working for Carlson as a booker and producer. Fox News, meanwhile, said it fired Grossberg after she filed her lawsuit because the producer violated company rules by publicizing privileged and confidential information. The network has also called Grossberg’s claims that she was coached and intimidated “unmeritorious” and “patently false.”
In amendments to her lawsuits on March 27, Grossberg offered herself up to Dominion as a star witness, adding that she would “never testify on behalf of Fox News in the trial” and “will only voluntarily testify—if at all—on behalf of Dominion.” The voting software company has indicated that they’ll take her up on that offer.
In his filing that the Dominion lawsuit must go to trial, Judge Eric Davis ruled that evidence showed that it “is CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.” At the same time, Davis noted it is still up to a jury to decide if the conservative channel acted with “actual malice.”
Fox News denies any wrongdoing in the case, and says it will “continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings.”
