Shortly before ousted Fox News personality Tucker Carlson posted a video to Twitter on Tuesday announcing that a new version of his massively successful show would be returning soon, his attorneys sent an “aggressive” letter to Fox News accusing the network of breach of contract, which would invalidate the non-compete clause.
The letter, sent to Fox officials Viet Dinh and Irena Briganti by Carlson’s attorneys Bryan Freedman and Harmeet Dhillon, was obtained by Axios. It specifically claims that Fox employees, including Dinh, Briganti, and “‘Rupert Murdoch himself’ broke promises to Carlson ‘intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth,’” that Carlson was told by a Fox board member that Carlson “was taken off the air” as part of the Dominion settlement, that “Briganti, Fox’s longtime communications and PR chief, attempted to ‘undermine, embarrass, and interfere’ with Carlson’s future business prospects,” and also contains numerous document demands.”
As Axios noted, “The Twitter move would seem to technically violate Carlson’s contract with Fox, but his lawyers’ letter effectively holds that Fox breached the contract first.” The current Axios reporting reiterates a claim made in their earlier reporting, which is that Fox wants to keep paying Carlson’s contract while keeping him off the air, “which would prevent him from starting a competing show.”
From Axios:
The lawyers accuse Fox executives — which two sources say are Dinh and Murdoch — of making “material representations,” or promises, to Carlson that were intentionally broken, constituting fraud.
Notably, the letter alleges Fox broke an agreement with Carlson not to leak his private communications to the media and not to use Carlson’s private messages “to take any adverse employment action against him.”
The letter also alleges Fox broke promises not to settle with Dominion Voting Systems “in a way which would indicate wrongdoing” on the part of Carlson and not to take any actions in a settlement that would harm Carlson’s reputation.
According to a source familiar with Carlson’s position, his lawyers believe that the misrepresentations alleged by Carlson amount to a breach of contract because they created additional terms of Carlson’s employment that were then broken by the company.
“These actions not only breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing in the Agreement, but give rise to claims for breach of contract, and intentional and negligent misrepresentation,” the letter says.
An outside attorney working for Dominion, Stephen Shackleford, told Axios that “Dominion did not insist on them [Fox News] firing Tucker Carlson as part of the settlement,” and a Fox News spokesperson told the outlet that the allegation is “categorically false.”
Carlson’s attorneys also made it clear that they believe Fox’s Briganti is behind a number of leaks to the media intended to harm Carlson’s reputation, writing:
“Make no mistake, we intend to subpoena Ms. Briganti’s cell phone records and related documents, which evidence communications with her and all media, including, but not limited to The New York Times.”
Hinting at potential litigation over the issues, the letter also included a preservation notice, requesting that Fox “take immediate steps to ‘preserve all existing documents and data relevant’ to Carlson’s relationship with the organization, including communications between executives and several media outlets.”
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