Fox Corporation announced on Friday that its chief legal officer, Viet Dinh, will be leaving the company in a major shakeup following the historic $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, an election technology company.
“We appreciate Viet’s many contributions and service to FOX as both a board member of 21st Century Fox and in his role over the last five years as a valued member of FOX’s leadership team,” stated Lachlan Murdoch, Fox Corporation’s CEO.
“We are grateful that he will continue to serve FOX as Special Advisor, where we will benefit from his counsel.”
According to a filing with the SEC on Friday, Dinh will receive a $23 million cash settlement and an additional $5 million for a two-year term as a special advisor.
Dinh, who had a close relationship with Lachlan Murdoch, joined the company as chief legal and policy officer in 2018.
His departure follows widespread criticism of his handling of Dominion’s significant defamation lawsuit against Fox News for broadcasting false claims about the 2020 election.
“I have been privileged to be part of the Fox family for over two decades as a director and officer, and I have especially treasured my relationships with Rupert, Lachlan, and our talented colleagues over the years,” Dinh said in a statement.
Legal experts were surprised that Fox Corporation allowed the lawsuit to progress so far, settling only at the last moment after a jury had been seated.
Because the lawsuit advanced to later stages, Fox had to participate in the discovery process, which revealed embarrassing communications involving the Murdoch family and other senior executives and hosts.
Dinh is the latest in a series of senior executives to leave following the Dominion settlement. Earlier this year, Raj Shah, a senior communications executive, also departed.
In 2021, Fox dismissed host Lou Dobbs after another voting technology company, Smartmatic, filed a $2.7 billion lawsuit against him and the network for promoting conspiracy theories.
Shortly after the Dominion settlement in early 2023, Fox also parted ways with its prominent prime-time host, Tucker Carlson.
Reports from various news outlets suggested that some of Carlson’s communications, which were redacted in court filings, played a key role in Fox’s decision to sever ties with him, though both Fox and Dominion deny any connection to the settlement.
Dominion is just one of several significant lawsuits Fox has resolved this year over its coverage of false election conspiracy theories in 2020.
In June, Fox settled a $12 million lawsuit with former producer Abby Grossberg, who had accused the network of pressuring her to provide false testimony in the Dominion case and fostering a toxic, misogynistic workplace environment.
Fox also settled a defamation lawsuit with a Venezuelan businessman who alleged the network made false claims about him and the 2020 election. The details of that settlement have not been disclosed.
In its SEC filing on Friday, Fox reported it had paid a total of $894 million in legal settlements in 2023, a higher amount than previously disclosed.
While Fox has resolved several major defamation cases at significant cost, the largest lawsuit stemming from the 2020 election, brought by Smartmatic, is still pending and is expected to go to trial in 2025.
Earlier this year, Smartmatic’s lawyer, Erik Connolly, told that the company is “looking to take this case through trial” and seeks “the vindication of a jury verdict in their favor.”
