Longtime Fox News host Maria Bartiromo accused of leaking internal messages to White House before shocking exit

Maria Bartiromo reportedly leaked sensitive information about Fox News weeks before her shocking exit on Thursday. 

The veteran news anchor is said to have shared with the White House that President Donald Trump’s July primetime speech about the 2020 election received limited coverage by Fox News because network bosses sent out guidance telling reporters to avoid giving credence to the president’s claims, Oliver Darcy writes for Status. 

She even allegedly sent White House personnel the text message she had received from Fox Business bosses, reportedly violating 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.

At the time she sent the White House the guidance, Bartiromo was also reportedly seeking to pursue a new story related to China and the 2020 election and Trump’s claims of Chinese interference, according to Puck.

Her final show aired on Fox Business on Thursday morning when Cheryl Casone stood in for the host.

Bartiromo’s Fox Business show will now be hosted by a rotating cast of anchors and will be renamed 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.’

The Daily Mail 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.

President Trump has since lamented her departure from the network.

‘I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on Fox News/Business,’ he posted on his Truth Social page Thursday night, saying she had ‘three different shows’ that were ‘always number one.’

‘Maria is a total professional and a true warrior,’ the president continued.

‘Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy.’ 

Meanwhile, 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.’