Viet Dinh, Fox’s chief legal officer, will depart the company after advising the network to its landmark $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems in April.
According to an SEC filing, Dinh will receive a $23 million lump sum payout and retain advisory status.
The voting technology company accused Fox News of intentionally airing false claims that voting machinery produced by Dominion contributed to widespread fraud in the 2020 election.
The network’s top lawyer was reportedly an advocate for not settling the Dominion suit too quickly, which settled just before the opening statements of the trial were set to begin.
Dinh will now take the fall for the outcome of the Dominion suit, which exposed internal turmoil at Fox over the coverage of the 2020 election. The top lawyer was an influential executive at Fox Corp. and a close advisor to Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch.
Fox Corp. has not yet named a successor, with Dinh staying until the end of the year.
In June, former Trump Spokesman turned Fox Corp. executive, Raj Shah, left the company. Although the reason for his departure was not made public, his departure followed the exposure of his role in pressing for Fox News to cover Trump in a positive light, following the election. Shah’s name was displayed in multiple documents uncovered by the lawsuit’s discovery process, in which he privately expressed disbelief in stolen election claims.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson has also claimed that his ouster in April was due to the outcome of the Dominion lawsuit. Fox Corp. continues to deny that Carlson’s firing was related to the settlement.
Fox Corp. faces an upcoming lawsuit with Smartmatic, another voting machinery company, who is suing the network for $2.7 billion for defamation over 2020 election claims made on-air.
