Fox executive who oversaw Dominion case is leaving position

Viet D. Dinh, who has led Fox News’s handling of several recent lawsuits over the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election, will step down as the company’s chief legal and policy officer at the end of the year.

As part of his exit, Dinh will receive a cash payment of $23 million, according to a filing Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Dinh will take a new role as a special adviser at Fox News parent company Fox Corp., for which he will be paid $5 million over two years.

While Dinh did not carry a large public profile, he has been a key behind-the-scenes player for the company and has been close to the Murdoch family, which controls the network. Dinh is the godfather to one of chief executive Lachlan Murdoch’s sons.

Dinh has faced some questions about his handling of the defamation lawsuit filed by voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems. The company sued the network for repeatedly airing false information and conspiracy theories about its voting machines after the 2020 election. Fox News, after months of disclosures of personal emails and text messages as part of the case’s discovery process, ended up settling with Dominion for $787.5 million right after a Delaware jury had been selected.

The company also recently settled a lawsuit alleging a hostile work environment filed by a former producer, Abby Grossberg, for $12 million. According to a company filing, Fox has spent a total of $894 million in 2023 on legal settlements.

Dinh has served as Fox’s chief legal and policy officer since 2018.

“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,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing with Fox as Special Advisor, and to returning to my roots of working on multiple ventures and with many clients across a variety of disciplines.”

Dinh’s personal communications and statements under oath played a role in the Dominion case. The voting-technology company argued that Dinh was among the executives who were legally responsible for the statements made on Fox that it viewed as defamatory.

In an early motion in the case, Dominion highlighted that Dinh had agreed that executives within the “chain of command” have an obligation “to prevent and correct known falsehoods,” such as false statements about the 2020 election.

While it settled the Dominion case, Fox News is still facing a massive lawsuit - also stemming from coverage of the 2020 election - from voting-technology company Smartmatic. It is expected to go to trial in 2025. Fox did not announce a replacement for Dinh on Friday.