Fox News threatens Gawker’s ‘Fox Mole’ with legal action: ‘A crime has been committed’

The Cutline

The legal team representing Fox News—which already threatened legal action against Gawker Media over their employment of Joe Muto, a "Fox News mole"—says the now-former Fox employee committed a crime and will pursue a case against him, too.

In a letter sent to Muto on Thursday and obtained by Yahoo News, the New York-based law firm Epstein Becker & Green P.C. advised Muto "that your admissions are admissions of likely criminal and civil wrongdoing on both your and Gawker's part, which will be the subject of further extensive investigation."

More from the letter:

You should immediately stop providing information and videos to Gawker that you unlawfully obtained while employed at Fox News, and return them to Fox News. You should immediately stop writing columns based on information that you unlawfully obtained while employed at Fox News.

Fox News—which terminated Muto, an associate producer for Bill O'Reilly's prime time show, on Thursday—declined further comment. "It's now in the hands of our lawyers and law enforcement given that a crime has been committed," a Fox News spokeswoman told Yahoo News.

Muto, who lives in Brooklyn, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The firm sent a similar letter to Gawker chief Nick Denton. Gawker responded by publishing the letter and a photo of O'Reilly standing with a group of friends, including a topless woman.

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