Maria Bartiromo Under Fire Over Alleged Leak of Internal Messages to White House

The longtime television news anchor is alleged to have told White House officials that Fox News gave limited airtime to President Donald Trump’s July primetime address about the 2020 election because executives had issued guidance directing journalists not to lend credibility to his claims, Oliver Darcy writes for Status.

Bartiromo also allegedly forwarded White House staff the text message she had received from Fox News leadership, a move that reportedly breached the terms of her employment agreement.

Fox News leadership ultimately learned of Bartiromo’s actions when it received a call from the White House, and she was pulled off the air on August 9, according to Puck News. 

The Fox Business host had caused previous trouble for the network when she questioned Dominion Voting Systems’ technology and methods following Trump’s 2020 election loss. Dominion filed a lawsuit against the network over the claims, for which Fox News paid a $787.5 million settlement in 2023.

Around the same time she passed along the internal guidance, Bartiromo was reportedly trying to develop a new story involving China, the 2020 election and Trump’s claims of Chinese interference, according to Puck.

Her final Fox Business program came Thursday morning, with Cheryl Casone filling in for the host.

Bartiromo’s Fox Business time slot will now be handled by a rotating lineup of anchors and rebranded as 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.

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.’

Our News Outlet 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.

In another lawsuit, filed by Smartmatic, Bartiromo was named as a defendant – the only one still working at the network as of Thursday.

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.

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.

As news of her surprise exit rang out, 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.’