Maria Bartiromo reportedly shared sensitive internal information about Fox News in the weeks leading up to her sudden exit on Thursday.
According to Oliver Darcy of Status, the prominent news anchor allegedly told White House officials that President Donald Trump’s July primetime remarks about the 2020 election drew limited attention on Fox News because executives had circulated guidance instructing journalists not to lend credibility to his claims.
Bartiromo is also said to have forwarded White House staff the text message she received from Fox Business leadership, a move that reportedly breached the terms of her employment agreement.
Fox News executives later discovered what had happened after receiving a call from the White House, and Bartiromo was taken off the air on August 9, Puck News reported.
Fox Business Cuts Ties with Maria Bartiromo After Controversies
The Fox Business host had already drawn scrutiny for the network after questioning Dominion Voting Systems’ technology and procedures in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 election defeat. Dominion later sued Fox News over the claims, and the network agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement in 2023.
At the time she sent the White House the guidance, Bartiromo was also reportedly seeking to pursue a new story related to China and the 2020 election and Trump’s claims of Chinese interference, according to Puck.
Her final show aired on Fox Business on Thursday morning when Cheryl Casone stood in for the host.
Bartiromo’s Fox Business show will now be hosted by a rotating cast of anchors and will be renamed Mornings With Fox Business.
Her other Fox Business show, Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street, will have her name stripped from it as well, the company said.
‘We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 ½ years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,’ a spokesperson for the network said in a press release on Thursday.
Legal Troubles and $70M Earnings Highlight Bartiromo’s Exit
When asked about the reports suggesting she was ousted after she revealed Fox News’ guidance about Trump’s claims, a spokesperson simply told Status it was a ‘business decision and the release speaks for itself.’
The Daily Mail has also reached out to Fox News and the White House for comment.
But court documents from the 2025 defamation lawsuit against Fox revealed she took in an eyewatering $70 million since joining the network from CNBC in 2014. She joined the latter in 1993 after being hired by then-CNBC President and future Fox exec Roger Ailes.
Ailes resigned from Fox in 2016, after former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson accused him of sexual harassment. Bartiromo became a regular target of criticism around that time, due to her kind coverage of Donald Trump.
Such coverage was vital to the defamation claims made by Dominion Voting Systems, in a different lawsuit that Fox News ended up settling for $787.5 million.
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In another lawsuit, filed by Smartmatic, Bartiromo was named as a defendant – the only one still working at the network as of Thursday.
Network Host Faces Heat Over 2020 Election Coverage
Bartiromo allowed false claims about the 2020 presidential election to air in an effort to keep viewers, the lawsuit claimed.
During a broadcast that aired in December 2020, she outright said that an ‘intel source’ told her ‘President Trump did in fact win the election.’
Her lawyers, though, fought back arguing that the lawsuit ‘acknowledges that Bartiromo pressed the President’s lawyers for evidence, repeatedly reminded viewers that the President’s lawyers needed to back up their claims with proof and interviewed guests who were skeptical or dismissive of the claims the President and his legal team were pressing,’ according to Deadline.
They also argued that Smartmatic failed to allege in the lawsuit that Bartiromo engaged in actual malice, which is necessary in proving defamation.
The case is still pending as Smartmatic seeks a trial.
Trump Laments Exit of ‘True Warrior’ Host Amid Press Secretary Rumors
Meanwhile, in June, Bartiromo welcomed a fiery rant from White House trade adviser Peter Navarro that credited former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) head Anthony Fauci with creating the coronavirus.
President Trump has since lamented her departure from the network.
‘I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on Fox News/Business,’ he posted on his Truth Social page Thursday night, saying she had ‘three different shows’ that were ‘always number one.’
‘Maria is a total professional and a true warrior,’ the president continued.
‘Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy.’
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance downplayed rumors that she was in line to replace Karoline Leavitt as the next White House press secretary.
‘I don’t know, man,’ he told a reporter who asked with a laugh. ‘No, I don’t think so.’
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