Jack Smith Sets His Sights on a Secret Fox News Recording of Ted Cruz as He Ramps Up Probe of Trump

This article has been updated with a comment from Fox News.Special Counsel Jack Smith is turning his gaze to Fox News and has already gained access to information from the network regarding secret recordings — involving Senator Cruz — that could help build a criminal case against President Trump. At issue are recordings kept by a then-booker at Fox, Abby Grossberg, who is suing Tucker Carlson and her former employer. Ms. Grossberg’s lawyer, Gerry Filippatos, told an MSNBC host, Ari Melber, that the Department of Justice in general and the special counsel in particular have reached out regarding her tapes.Mr. Filippatos discloses that his client has turned over “descriptions” of the tapes’ contents, and is in discussion to yield more. He added that it was the special counsel who contacted Ms. Grossberg, not she who proffered the evidence. This suggests that Mr. Smith is casting a wide net in respect of the part of his mandate to investigate Mr. Trump’s role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Ms. Grossberg, who worked as Mr. Carlson’s senior guest booker, collected the tapes to bolster a pair of lawsuits she launched alleging that Fox News, Fox Corp, and their employees — including Tucker Carlson — engaged in abusive workplace behavior. Fox fired Ms. Grossberg after she sued and calls her claims “unmeritorious.” Ms. Grossberg’s complaint argues that Mr. Carlson fostered an environment where “unprofessionalism reigned supreme, and the staff’s distaste and disdain for women infiltrated almost every workday decision.” She adds that the “misogynistic fish rots from the head down” and that she was discriminated against for being Jewish. Ms. Grossberg, though, sees her litigation as not only aimed at the “abuse and harassment” that she alleges she endured, but also as a “step towards accountability for the election lies and baseless conspiracy theories spread by Fox News.” It was those “election lies and conspiracy theories” that resulted in the company’s mandated payout to Dominion Voting Systems.In one of the tapes, Mr. Melber reports, Ms. Grossberg, Senator Cruz, and a Fox News host, Maria Bartiromo, discuss ways to cast doubt on the 2020 election. Mr. Cruz muses that to contest the results, “You need an adjudicatory body with fact-finding and investigative authority to consider the facts to examine the record and to make determinations.”“That’s how they did it in 1877,” Mr. Cruz adds, a reference to the commission tasked with investigating widespread allegations of voter fraud and electoral irregularities in the election of that centennial year, which pitted Rutherford Hayes against Samuel Tilden. The outcome was only resolved by a deal whereby Hayes gained the presidency while the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction. Presumably, the special counsel, Mr. Smith, sought the tapes as he gathers evidence regarding efforts by Mr. Trump and his supporters, such as Mr. Cruz, to challenge the 2020 election results.Mr. Cruz responded to the disclosure of Mr. Smith’s involvement by tweeting a “clown” emoji in reference to Mr. Melber, a reliably liberal attorney and MSNBC host. Mr. Cruz notes that he made the same proposal in public and on the floor of the Senate. Mr. Cruz was the first senator to object to the results of the 2020 election. When asked on the tapes by Ms. Bartiromo if overturning the election was feasible, he responded, “I hope so.”It is likely that should Mr. Smith seek to subpoena Mr. Cruz on the basis of the conversations caught on Ms. Grossberg’s tapes, the Texan would invoke the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which protects lawmakers from being questioned “in any place” for “any” speech or debate made in either house. The clause has gained fresh force in recent months in relation to investigations of President Trump. It has been invoked by both Senator Graham in Georgia and Vice President Pence in his capacity as president of the Senate. In each case, judges ruled that they were entitled to partial, but not blanket, immunity. A spokeswoman for Fox News tells the Sun that Ms. Grossberg’s claims are “baseless” and “riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees,” adding that “she had no bearing on the settlement” with Dominion.

Jack Smith Sets His Sights on a Secret Fox News Recording of Ted Cruz as He Ramps Up Probe of Trump

Jack Smith Sets His Sights on a Secret Fox News Recording of Ted Cruz as He Ramps Up Probe of Trump

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