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Fox News dismissed a legal threat from Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden who provided testimony against the Biden family in Congress. Bobulinski's attorneys asked a Fox News host to take back a statement made on air this week.
Jessica Tarlov, a co-host of the popular Fox News show The Five, clarified her remarks on-air during Thursday's broadcast in response to Bobulinski's attorney's letter.
I would like to clarify a comment I made yesterday during our discussion of Tony Bobulinski’s appearance at the congressional hearing. During an exchange with my colleagues about the hearing I said that Mr. Bobulinski’s lawyers’ fees have been paid by a Trump super PAC as recent as January.
What was actually said during the hearing was that the law firm representing Mr. Bobulinski was paid by a Trump PAC. I have seen no indication those payments were made in connection with Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees and he denies that they were.
The clarification followed a letter from Bobulinski's lawyer to Fox Corporation, the parent company of Fox News, asking for Tarlov to retract her statement and apologize.
Bobulinski was not satisfied with the clarification. His lawyer sent a strongly worded letter on Friday demanding a “complete retraction and apology” at the beginning of The Five, and also requested the show to broadcast a photo of Bobulinski being sworn in before Congress. The lawyer emphasized this in the letter.
To be clear, we demand a complete retraction and apology by Ms. Tarlov AT THE TOP OF TODAY’S SHOW while showing this photograph in which Ms. Tarlov clearly states that she explicitly “apologizes to Tony Bobulinski and Stefan Passantino for making a false claim on the air which harmed their reputations.” Ms. Tarlov must further state, “To be clear, it appears that Mr. Bobulinski has always paid all of his legal bills and there is no evidence that Mr. Passantino or his law firm accepted money from anyone other than Mr. Bobulinski for his representation.” These statements must be made without the petulant innuendo or further attempted mental gymnastics as we saw from her yesterday. Absent such statements, both he and Mr. Passantino will continue to be harmed.
Tarlov did not issue a retraction at the start of Friday’s show. Instead, Fox News responded to the letter with a harsh message, obtained by Mediaite, that dismissed the demand from Bobulinski’s lawyer.
I am responding to your letter of March 22, 2024, to Jeff Taylor concerning the correction that Jessica Tarlov made on “The Five” on March 21, 2024. Her correction was accurate, and we will not be issuing any further correction.
On March 21, Mr. Binnal of your firm wrote to Mr. Taylor to complain that on March 20 Ms. Tarlov had said on “The Five” that Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees had been paid as recently as January 2024 by a Trump PAC and that this statement was not true. The next day, on air, Ms. Tarlov corrected her statement. She explained: “What was actually said at the hearing was that the law firm representing Mr. Bobulinski was paid by a Trump PAC.” That statement was an entirely accurate report on the congressional proceedings. At the hearing in question, Representative Crockett stated that the Save America PAC had paid the law firm (Elections LLC), and she introduced a document into the record that she claimed showed such a payment. Publicly available FEC filings also show payments from the Save America PAC to Elections LLC.
Ms. Tarlov then went on to further correct her prior statement: “I have seen no indication that those payments were made in connection to Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees, and he denies that they were.” That correction made clear that Ms. Tarlov had “no indication” that the Trump PAC payments to the law firm were connected to Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees.
Your suggestion that Ms. Tarlov’s statement somehow “left the impression that it was a matter of fact . . . that Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees were being paid by a Trump PAC,” March 22 Letter at 2, simply ignores what Ms. Tarlov said. She made clear that she had “no indication” that there was any such connection between a Trump PAC and Mr. Bobulinski’s fees. And she also repeated your client’s denial that any Trump PAC had paid his fees.
In short, the statements Ms. Tarlov made on March 21 were accurate and made clear that Ms. Tarlov was not aware of anything to indicate that payments from a Trump PAC to Elections, LLC were made in connection with Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees. We will not issue any further correction.
Bobulinski spoke before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday about his dealings with the Biden family. He alleged that the family had a “foreign influence peddling operation” in countries like Ukraine and China, and that Hunter Biden was leveraging “the brand” of the family.
