Fox News informed Tucker Carlson’s lawyers on Wednesday that he had breached the contract he signed with the conservative channel when releasing the first episode of his new show this week on Twitter, according to an insider with knowledge of the situation.
Carlson, the fiery right-wing media personality known for his conspiracy theories, parted ways from Fox News at the end of April. This was just days after network had agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800,000,000 in order to avoid a high-stakes lawsuit.
Fox News’ general counsel Bernard Gugar wrote to Carlson’s lawyers in a letter, claiming that the broadcaster had “breached” his contract. The contract was signed in November 2019, and was amended in February 2020.
Bryan Freedman said in a statement that any legal action taken by Fox News would violate Carlson’s First Amendment rights.
Freedman stated that “Fox defends itself on the basis of freedom of speech.” “Now, they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to freely speak away from him for using social media to express his views on current events.”
Axios was the first to report this news. NBC News did not receive a copy of this letter. However, a source who has direct knowledge of this matter confirmed the accuracy of all the information contained in the Axios piece.
Fox News’ top spokespeople did not respond immediately to a request for comment via email or text regarding the Axios Report.
Carlson debuted his new show on Tuesday night, with a video of about 10 minutes titled “Ep. 1.” Carlson claims in the video that there is no evidence to support his claim that Ukraine attacked , a dam located on Russian-occupied territory and caused devastating floods.
The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia with force of the attack. U.S. officials said that intelligence indicated the Putin regime was responsible. John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, said that President Joe Biden’s administration is evaluating reports that Russia is responsible.
Moscow denies all involvement.
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, tweeted that after Carlson’s first episode was posted on the platform it would be “great to have shows from every part of the political spectrum”
Carlson, who became a leading voice in the conservative movement after his tenure at Fox News was established, announced that he would be creating a show on Twitter in a video titled “We’re Back” in May 9, 2009.
