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Tucker Carlson’s lawyers reportedly sent Fox News a letter on Tuesday, accusing the network of fraud and breach of contract followinghis exiton April 24.
Axiosreported that the letter claimed the noncompete clause in Carlson’s contract is now void, so he is allowed to produce his own show.
Carlson’s lawyer Bryan Freedman reportedly sent the letter to Fox officials Viet Dinh and Irena Briganti, claiming that Fox employees, including “Rupert Murdoch himself,” went back on their word to Carlson “intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth,” according to Axios.
TheNewYorkTimesreported that some of the right-wing media personality’stext messages may have played a role in his abrupt exitwith one message in particular — in which Carlson admitted to rooting for a “group of Trump guys” to kill “an Antifa kid” — alarmed Fox News' executives when it came to light as part of a lawsuit.
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“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,’ " Axios reports the letter read.
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Continuing, Axios said the letter argued: “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.”
Carlson was featured prominently in the network’s recent legal battle with Dominion Voting Systems, according to theAssociated Press. It is unclear if the defamation lawsuit could have played a role in his exit.
The voting company recently settled with the network, but not before Carlson’s text messages and emails and other network personalities were named in court filings.
“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 read, according to Axios.
Fox News' only public comment so far about Carlson has been that the network and the anchor “have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
In the statement released last month, Fox News added that Carlson’s last program was April 21.
Fox News did not reply to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
source: people.com
