Viet Dinh to Leave as Fox’s Chief Legal Officer

Viet Dinh, the architect of Fox Corp.’s ill-fated legal strategy that resulted in a $787.5 million record defamation settlement, is leaving his post as chief legal and policy officer at year’s end.

Dominion Voting Systems accused Fox News of airing false claims that the voting-machine company’s technology helped rig the 2020 presidential election in favor of President Biden. Fox, in its defense, said it was covering newsworthy election-fraud claims.

Dinh was a vocal advocate of not settling the defamation case sooner, people close to the case said. The strategy resulted in reputational damage to Fox News and Fox Corp. as internal communications were made public that showed executives, including Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch, and on-air personalities were skeptical of the fraud claims that aired on the Fox News and Fox Business channels.

Fox settled the case on the eve of trial, saying, “we are hopeful that our decision to resolve this dispute with Dominion amicably, instead of the acrimony of a divisive trial, allows the country to move forward from these issues.”  

Dinh was one of the most influential executives at Fox and a close adviser to Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch. His strong position at the company waned following the settlement, some people familiar with the matter said.

A person familiar with Dinh’s thinking took issue with that assessment.

Dinh said in a statement Friday that he has been “privileged to be part of the Fox family for over two decades” and that he has “especially treasured my relationships with Rupert, Lachlan.” Dinh said he wanted to return to his roots of “working on multiple ventures and with many clients across a variety of disciplines.”

Fox will pay Dinh $23 million as part of his separation agreement, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Dinh also will become a consultant to Fox for two years after leaving his official position, earning $2.5 million a year, the company said.

“We appreciate Viet’s many contributions and service to Fox,” said Lachlan Murdoch

Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership.

Dinh’s role at Fox went beyond his title. He often weighed in on business matters that were outside of his purview as head of legal affairs, current and former executives said.

Areas in which Dinh involved himself over the years included content strategy at the Fox network, where he was known to question the size of programming budgets, people who worked alongside him said. His role had been reduced over the past few years as corporate communications had previously been under him and now reports directly to Lachlan Murdoch.

A veteran of politics and the chief author of the Patriot Act as a former assistant attorney general in President

According to people close to the case, Dinh felt the Dominion suit was winnable and wanted to go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, overriding others who feared a drawn-out fight could prove costly and potentially embarrassing to the company. In December, Dinh agreed to a mediation effort that failed to resolve the matter.

Fox’s legal case was severely hindered when the judge ruled that it wasn’t entitled to use a First Amendment defense. Lachlan Murdoch said that while he believed the company could ultimately win, it would be a distraction and very costly, leading to the decision to settle.

The Dominion case also led to the disclosure of remarks from then-prime-time Fox News host

Fox faces a separate $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic USA, a voting-machine company making similar claims as Dominion. Fox has denied Smartmatic’s allegations.

Dinh first met Lachlan Murdoch at an Aspen Institute conference. Both Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch took to Dinh, whose back story includes a dramatic escape from his native South Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War. Poor for much of his life, Dinh was a high achiever and ended up attending Harvard for both his undergraduate and law degrees, and served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, a longtime friend and former Harvard classmate of Dinh, called him “an exceptionally smart and talented lawyer” whose advice has long been sought by “captains of industry, senior political leaders and Supreme Court justices.”

In 2007, Dinh joined the board of News Corp, which at the time included assets such as Fox News. Dinh was questioned by shareholders about his status as an independent director, citing the fact that he is a godfather to one of Lachlan’s children. At the time, Dinh said the relationship “in no way affects” his duty to shareholders.

Dinh quickly became a powerful board member and was seen as a defender of the Murdochs from shareholders, according to people familiar with the matter. Dinh also helped News Corp navigate the 2011 phone-hacking scandal at one of its British tabloids.

News Corp and Fox split about a decade ago. Dinh served on the board of 21st Century Fox, which was the predecessor company to Fox Corp. He was named chief legal and policy officer for the new Fox company in 2018 after serving as a partner at Kirkland & Ellis.

Write to Joe Flint at [email protected]