NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 21: A view of the Fox logo outside the News Corp Building on 5th Ave. on March 21, 2023 in New York City. News Corp is the parent company of Fox News who has studios in the building.
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Fox’s top lawyer is stepping down just a few months after the company’s mammoth Dominion settlement.Viet Dinh will receive a $23 million lump sum payment when he exits as chief legal officer later this year.Dinh was a key confidant of the Murdochs and is godfather to Fox Corp CEO Lachlan’s son.
One of Fox’s most prominent lawyers and a key player in the Dominion settlement is stepping down from his influential role at the company, and will take home a $23 million exit package.
Fox Corp announced Viet Dinh, a key confidant of the company’s CEO Lachlan Murdoch, would be leaving his role as the company’s chief legal and policy officer at the end of the year. He will stay on at the company as a special advisor.
According to a filing submitted Friday to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Dinh will receive a lump sum payout of $23 million. He will also take in an annual salary of $2.5 million in his role as special advisor over the next two years.
“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,” Murdoch said.
Dinnh is a Republican “pitbull” lawyer who authored the Patriot Act in 2001 for George Bush in response to the 9/11 terror attacks when he was Assistant Attorney General.
He was hired by Fox in 2018 and became a key figure as the company sold its movie studio 21st Century Fox to Disney for $71 billion. He has formed a close personal relationship with the Murdoch family, and is godfather to one of Lachlan’s sons.
But Dinh will more likely be remembered for his pivotal role in the Dominion lawsuit which rocked the company earlier this year.
Dominion sued Fox for $1.6 billion after the group’s news channel raised doubts about the Dominion’s voting machines following the 2020 presidential elections.
The pair eventually settled the case for a much lower sum of $787.5 million in April, just days before the trial was set to begin. It is the largest publicly documented settlement figure for a defamation suit in history.
Guided by Dinh, Murdoch informed investors on an earnings call in May that Fox had a strong free speech argument going in their favor, were the case to have made it to trial.