Fox News fired one of its top stars due to a shady betrayal.
Maria Bartiromo, 58, was fired from the network on Thursday because she had informed the White House about Fox’s secret instructions to not promote President Donald Trump’s election conspiracies on the air, according to Status.
The particular incident happened in July following the president’s primetime address to the nation, in which he claimed that China had interfered in the 2020 presidential election.
Status reported that Fox News had issued written instructions to senior employees to steer their coverage of Trump’s address away from his false claims, which the network largely abided by—to the White House’s surprise.
However, the outlet said Trump or a White House official pressed Bartiromo about the lack of coverage of Trump’s claims, and she revealed that her bosses had ordered the claims not to be covered. She even shared the text message that relayed the network’s guidance with the White House.
Disclosing the network’s confidential information violated her employment agreement, Status reported.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Fox News for comment.
The bombshell update comes only hours after Fox announced Bartiromo’s departure from the network without explanation.
“We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 and a half years and wish her all the best on her next chapter,” the network’s terse statement read.
Since the announcement, Bartiromo’s presence on the network has been scrubbed clean—with Fox Business Network already taking down her contributor page.
The former host’s programs have all been renamed or shifted to other anchors.
Mornings with Maria is set to become Mornings with Fox Business, while Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street will become FBN’s Wall Street and will be hosted by Cheryl Casone and other rotating anchors.
Jason Chaffetz is set to take over Sunday Morning Futures this weekend, while another permanent host will be announced at a later date.
Bartiromo launched her first live broadcast from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1993 as a CNBC reporter, becoming the first woman to report live from the trading floor.
She spent two decades at CNBC as a business journalist before she joined Fox News, where she slowly began revealing her Trump-ward tilt.
At Fox, she cultivated a relationship with Trump through her coverage—sharing dinners with him, joining the Kennedy Center board, and even parroting his 2020 election lies.
“Maria was always considered to be a principled professional,” her former CNBC co-anchor Ted David told the Los Angeles Times in 2020. “She’s losing a lot of respect from her fellow journalists.”
Trump, in return, has praised her frequently, calling her “fantastic” and “fabulous,” and has often agreed to interviews with her throughout his second term.
