Fox News Channel (FNC) sent a letter to former host Tucker Carlson claiming the veteran news anchor violated his contract by launching a new show on Twitter on Tuesday.
Carlson’s show quickly racked up over 70 million views — dwarfing his regular audience at Fox News.
The former top cable news star was ousted from the network as part of a secret handshake deal connected to the network’s $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in April.
Carlson was fired without warning in late April just minutes before he was set to film his show and he reportedly wants to “torch” Fox News for it.
Fox News Channel lawyers sent a letter that claims Carlson’s new show on Twitter puts him “in breach” of his contractual arrangement with the cable news channel. Carlson is under contract through December 2024.
“This evening we were made aware of Mr. Tucker Carlson’s appearance on Twitter in a video that lasted over 10 minutes,” Bernard Gugar, Fox News’ general counsel, told Carlson’s lawyers.
“Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Mr. Carlson’s ‘services shall be completely exclusive to Fox.”
Carlson is “prohibited from rendering services of any type whatsoever, whether ‘over the internet via streaming or similar distribution, or other digital distribution whether now known or hereafter devised.'”
“In connection with such breach and pursuant to the Agreement, Fox expressly reserves all rights and remedies which are available to it at law or equity,” the letter said.
The breach of contract claim sets up an explosive potential legal fight between FNC and Carlson, intensifying their already public feud.
Carlson’s lawyers fired back and said their client has a right to free speech.
“Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds,” Carlson’s lawyers told Axios in a statement. “Now they want to take Tucker Carlson’s right to speak freely away from him because he took to social media to share his thoughts on current events.”
BREAKING: Fox News lawyers have reached out to Tucker Carlson notifying him that he breached his contract by launching his show on Twitter.
So Fox is allowed to fire Tucker but he is not allowed to speak freely online?
In response to the move by Fox, Tucker's lawyers responded… pic.twitter.com/UFGpjNFmqb
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 7, 2023
The Horn News editorial team