It has only been a couple of weeks and already Abby Grossberg sees her suit unraveling.
In all the tumult surrounding Tucker Carlson and his being removed from the airwaves, one side story that emerged was given immense attention in the press. Abby Grossberg is a former booker for Tucker Carlson Tonight and she has brought a suit against FoxNews alleging she was coerced to testify in a particular fashion on behalf of the network.
As a companion to that, Grossberg has a separate suit alleging that working with Tucker Carlson subjected Grossberg to callous remarks and she had to work in a toxic environment, something she alleges was fostered by the host. There was talk that she had numerous audio tapes to prove her case. As a sign of the crumbling foundation of her claims comes the announcement that Grossberg’s suit against Fox is being pulled by her lawyers. What this means is still in limbo.
“FOX would be mistaken in viewing our client’s voluntary dismissal of her civil conspiracy claims as a retreat from those claims,” said Gerry Filippatos, Grossberg’s attorney. The explanation was not fully given, but as we will see, this is not a legal team that has displayed the highest levels of aptitude. What is being said is that the legal team intends to refile this suit, in another city entirely. The intent is to seemingly piggyback on the coattails of another defamation suit against the network.
Initially, they were suing Fox in Delaware, as that was where the defamation case with Dominion Voting Systems was held. Upon settlement however the attorney feels this undercuts their chances, so Filippatos wants to move their case to New York, where Smartmatic filed its defamation suit. This is a sign they are intending to either become a party to or build off that lawsuit to bolster their claims.
Here is where desperation is suspected. In a statement about the refining, the legal team declares that New York is a more fitting location for their lawsuit. Except, the initial lawsuit was based on Grossberg’s contention that she was being coerced for the Dominion trial, and fired as a result. What connection is there to Smartmatic? Also, this comment stands out: “We intend to reestablish those claims in the court of most appropriate jurisdiction.” This is an odd look. If New York was always the most appropriate place, then why did the lawyers file in Delaware in the first place?
Meanwhile, in her other suit — against Carlson — Grossberg is also foundering. This case initially earned her plaudits from the usual voices in the left-leaning media, with appearances on CNN and with Nicolle Wallace, among others. Then almost immediately problems with her case emerged.
The biggest issue was an admission that undermined many of her claims: It turned out that Grossberg had never met Tucker Carlson personally. As the show’s booking agent, she spoke, texted, or emailed Tucker on the regular, but since he produced his show from his home studio he was never in the New York offices. It has even been said that as Tucker would entertain a number of staffers at his residence, Grossberg was never included in these workplace jaunts. Now the contention is that, from Maine, Tucker orchestrated the New York offices to be aggressively toxic.
Another issue undermining this case was something I covered on the Lie-Able Sources podcast last week. As Grossberg touts possessing electronic evidence that illustrates her claims, one frequent guest with Tucker says they have their own text messages which counter the charges. Amber Athey at The Spectator spoke with the guest who says they dealt with Grossberg frequently and they had a series of lengthy conversations, during which the producer only had glowing things to say about working on the show.
Making this all the more trenchant – this is a guest who specializes in office culture and toxic atmospheres in the workplace. If anyone might hear lengthy complaints about what transpired at FoxNews, it would be this source, but instead, they detail Grossberg speaking warmly about her position.
There was a “stark contrast,” this source said, between how she spoke about working for Carlson and the seriousness of the claims made in her lawsuit.
According to the guest, at no time did Grossberg ever suggest that she was experiencing issues in her current role with Tucker Carlson, whose show she worked for as a booker from July 2022 to March 2023.
Instead, the guest says she spoke positively of Carlson and her colleagues on his show, and expressed that she felt she was in a much healthier work environment compared to her time at Sunday Morning Futures.
In response to some of these reports, the attorney Filippatos (who sees fit to include his pronouns in professional correspondence) replied, when asked to comment, in a manner that does not exactly help out his client’s case. He quixotically declares Grossberg “was never informed she was being fired until she was actually fired.” Is he saying it was required that she be preemptively notified ahead of time? The rest of his email reads like a sub-professional screed with oddly archaic references, such as “Mr. Carlson and his misogynistic tweedle dee and tweedle dum male colleagues.”
This is shaping up to be another case of the media latching on to an emerging figure who serves the purpose of an agenda, but not vetting them in a manner that might expose some flaws. We saw this pattern play out with the likes of Michael Avenatti, Rebekah Jones, Christine Blasey Ford, and others, who later flamed out as far as being reputable sources.
This is not to say Grossberg has plummeted to those levels — yet — but she has displayed plenty of reasons to proceed with caution. That the press cannot help themselves is becoming rather apparent. Again.