Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- April 3, 2023
- Targets
- Abby Grossberg (Fox News)
- Legal Orders
-
-
subpoena
for
communications or work product
- April 3, 2023: Pending
- April 23, 2023: Carried out
-
subpoena
for
communications or work product
- Legal Order Target
- Journalist
- Legal Order Venue
- State
Subpoena/Legal Order
A portion of a subpoena issued to former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg on April 3, 2023, seeking documents and communications concerning the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election.
Former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg was subpoenaed as part of a defamation lawsuit against the broadcast company on April 3, 2023.
Smartmatic, which builds and implements electronic voting systems, is pursuing a $2.7 billion lawsuit against Fox News for broadcasting allegations that the company was involved in potential election fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
The subpoena, which was reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, directs Grossberg to produce extensive documents and communications dating from Jan. 1, 2020 to the present concerning the claims of election interference broadcast by Fox News. The requested files include all correspondence with former President Donald Trump’s attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, as well as all communications with Fox News or its parent company, Fox Corp, concerning the 2020 election and the network’s coverage of it.
Grossberg’s attorney Parisis Filippatos told NBC News that the former producer intends to fully comply with the subpoena, which instructs her to produce the documents within 20 days. Filippatos did not respond to an email requesting further comment.
According to NBC, Grossberg worked at Fox from 2019 to March 24, 2023, and was fired after filing a lawsuit against the network alleging that she was coerced into giving misleading deposition testimony in a separate libel lawsuit against the broadcast company, which was settled on April 18. Fox told NBC that she was fired after divulging privileged information.
Fox News did not respond to an email requesting additional comment.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
