Fox News accused its former prime-time star Tucker Carlson of breaching his contract after he launched a new opinion show on Twitter this week, according to Axios and Mediaite.
Both media outlets said that lawyers for Fox News sent a letter to Carlson setting up a possible legal showdown.
Carlson’s new show, a 10-minute tour of various conspiracy theories, launched Tuesday on the platform now controlled by right-wing billionaire Elon Musk.
The host promised to be back with “much more, very soon.” (His home in Maine has a full production studio.)
He was dumped from Fox in the wake of the devastating legal settlement reached in mid-April with Dominion Voting Systems, which had sued for $1.6 billion alleging the network knowingly spewed damaging lies about its machinery as it spread false claims that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from Donald Trump. Fox agreed to fork over $787 million to avoid a potentially humiliating trial. The network announced the following week that Carlson would be leaving, although it did not give an explanation.
According to Axios, Carlson accused Fox News of breaching its side of his contract in May, setting his lawyers up to argue that a noncompete provision in the contract was no longer valid. Carlson said he was told his ouster came as part of the settlement with Dominion, Axios and Variety reported. Fox News denied that was the case.
Fox News was still paying Carlson his $20 million salary while their legal battle plays out, according to Variety.
The network did not return HuffPost’s request for comment.
Carlson had made a name for himself in his six-plus years at Fox News by ranting about conservative bogeymen, including immigrants and progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).