Lawyers for Fox News have drafted a series of threatening letters following the leaking of text messages and unaired footage regarding the network’s recently fired host Tucker Carlson.
Attorneys for Dominion Voting Systems, who settled a defamation lawsuit with Fox for a massive $787.5 million last month, were sent letters on Friday that complained about the leaking of previously redacted Carlson text messages uncovered as part of the trial. The unredacted texts, published by multiple media outlets this week, feature Carlson using a sexist slur and making racially charged remarks.
In two letters obtained by Newsweek, four different Dominion lawyers are warned that the disclosures are in violation of a court order and the terms of the settlement. The Fox lawyers demand that Dominion launch an “investigation” into the leaks and report back with their findings by Monday.
“Fox requests that you and your clients immediately make an investigation into the circumstances surrounding this inexcusable release of confidential discovery material and report back to Fox by the close of business on May 8, 2023,” Fox attorney Katharine Mowery writes in one of the letters.
“Fox takes these improper disclosures seriously and requests that you and your clients investigate and confirm that you are not the source of these improper disclosures,” writes attorney Dan Webb in the other letter. “By close of business on May 8, 2023, please let me know the nature and conclusions of the investigation you conducted.”
In a statement to Newsweek, a Dominion spokesperson said that “nobody associated with Dominion shared these confidential materials with the press.”
In addition to the demands to Dominion, a Fox lawyer also sent a cease-and-desist letter to progressive media watchdog group Media Matters for America on Friday. The group has recently obtained and published a series of unflattering videos of Carlson on the set of his canceled popular opinion show Tucker Carlson Tonight.
A copy of the letter emailed to Newsweek features lawyer Christopher Chiou asking Media Matters President and CEO Angelo Carusone to “clarify any misunderstandings” about the footage, while demanding that he put an end to the publishing of “Fox’s misappropriated proprietary footage.”
Carusone responded to the demands in a statement that rejects the demands while mockingly suggesting that the conservative-leaning news network would be less concerned if the footage had involved the laptop of President Joe Biden‘s son Hunter.
“Reporting on newsworthy leaked material is a cornerstone of journalism,” Carusone said. “For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they’re a news operation.”
“Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden‘s laptop, it will alleviate their concerns,” he added.
The behind-the-scenes videos published by Media Matters show Carlson making a series of questionable comments to female colleagues, while also disparaging the network’s own streaming platform Fox Nation and complaining that he had been “triggered” by a Dominion lawyer he described as a “slimy little motherf*****.”
In a video showing Carlson pondering whether he thinks a woman is “yummy,” the then-host seemingly anticipates that the footage would later be leaked to Media Matters, making an obscene gesturing while telling the watchdog to “go f*** yourself.”
Of the leaked text messages, one particularly eyebrow-raising moment features Carlson coming to the conclusion that his wish for an “Antifa kid” to be beaten to death by a group of “Trump guys” was wrong. Carlson also said that beating the “Antifa kid” would be “dishonorable” because it is not “how white men fight.”
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