Megyn Kelly: Fox Breached Tucker's Contract First

Fox News breached its contract with its prime-time star Tucker Carlson when it stopped his show with no warning, and his attorneys are correct in a letter to the network outlining his position in the matter, but the network will likely settle in arbitration rather than going to court, according to Megyn Kelly.

"They're not going to take this to a court, but that's what Tucker's threatening," Kelly, also a former Fox News star, said on her podcast, "The Megyn Kelly Show" Wednesday. "He writes a threatening legal letter to Fox, saying as follows: 'A noncompete provision in his contract is no longer valid. Fox breached the contract first.'"

"I've been saying this all along," Kelly continued. "It's very clear if they were behind these smears, and you know my reasoning for believing they are, it's a breach of what we call the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, which is built into every contract."

The provision means that employers have the contractual obligation to deal honestly and fairly with employees, said Kelly.

"Is it honest and fair for a company to fire a man, silence a man while day-by-day leaking his confidential moments and communications within the company when he was a faithful servant of the company?" asked Kelly. "Is that honest and is it fair?

"You can't say Sorry Tucker, you can say nothing. You will sit there silenced or will say you breached. We'll call The New York Times, we'll call The Daily Beast, we'll call Media Matters we'll call whoever the hell we want, and we will say whatever the hell we want about you."

Meanwhile, Kelly said she wants everyone to know where Carlson stands:

People are a "little confused" about whether Carlson is part of a partnership with Twitter owner Elon Musk, which he's not, as "he's just posting the show for now on Twitter and then it will link once he has his full show running on TuckerCarlson.com, which will be a subscription service," said Kelly.
Being on Twitter is "smart" as it is a "great way of reaching millions and millions of fans."
Carlson's three-minute return video has tens of millions of views already, and it's "already just a sign of what Fox News is in for."

She further argued that Carlson had trusted Fox to protect his on-camera comments, as well as his off-air moments "with the confidentiality" provided to every other anchor, but instead, they used his statements and communications to "ruin" him for further employment after his 18-month required stint on the sidelines ends.

In their letter, obtained by Axios, to Fox officials Viet Dinh and Irena Briganti that employees for the network, including CEO Rupert Murdoch, broke the promises to Carlson "intentionally and with reckless disregard for the truth," breaching the contract.

In their letter, the lawyers lay out the details:

They accuse Fox executives of intentionally breaking “material representations,” or promises, to Carlson, constituting fraud.
Fox broke an agreement with Carlson against leaking his private communications to the media or to use his messages "to take any adverse employment action against him."
Fox broke promises not to settle with Dominion Voting Systems "in a way which would indicate wrongdoing" on Carlson's part or refuse to take actions in a way that would harm the former host's reputation.

"Remember, I've been jumping up and down about that one New York Times piece that revealed Tucker Carlson texts in the Dominion lawsuit saying these were the reason behind his termination and happened to reference two of the ridiculous videos where Tucker's caught on camera during a commercial break," said Kelly. "Who would have access to both of those Dominion [files]? It's Fox News and the leaks continued well beyond then."

Kelly maintained that Briganti was behind the leaks, and there is a "very educated reason for that."

"I'm sure they'll try to get The New York Times reporters and say who gave you this information and the Times reporters will say, I'm not obligated to tell you that I'm a reporter, and I'll protect my source," said Kelly. "She doesn't have that right — the one doing the leaks doesn't have the right to refuse to answer."