Fox News parts ways with Maria Bartiromo after 12.5 years amid ongoing defamation lawsuits

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Fox News abruptly announced Thursday that it is parting ways with longtime host Maria Bartiromo after more than a dozen years.

Bartiromo initially brought credibility and flair to Fox Business Network as a financial markets journalist when she arrived in 2014. She became a highly paid mainstay, hosting more than 16 hours a week of programs on the business network and its corporate sibling, Fox News.

She later provided an insider's line to President Trump, fueling ratings but ultimately helping to enmesh Fox News in a spectacular scandal after promoting his lies about the 2020 race.

"We thank Maria for her work over the last 12 1/2 years and wish her all the best on her next chapter," the network said in a brief statement.

The release contained no remarks from Bartiromo herself. She could not be immediately reached for comment. She made no mention of departing the network in her final appearance earlier Thursday morning.

Fox presented Bartiromo as a news anchor, and not as one of Fox's increasingly opinionated hosts. But that changed over time. Her star rose as she tightly and publicly embraced Trump. Yet her decision to spread unfounded theories of conspiracy fraud helped to land Fox in court.

Her shows featured prominently in a defamation case against Fox brought by the voting technology company Dominion Voting Systems. Fox settled the case for more than $787 million just as the trial was about to begin.

Bartiromo also features heavily in a second multibillion dollar defamation suit. That one was filed by Smartmatic, another voting software company, also against Fox News over statements it broadcasted about the 2020 vote. That case is ongoing.

Until Thursday, Bartiromo was the only individual defendant in the Smartmatic case still working at the network.

Fox's legal team appeared in court Thursday morning in a hearing on the case, which is scheduled for trial next year.

The court cases have yielded mortifying revelations. In one November 2020 program in which Bartiromo and a guest alleged electoral fraud, Bartiromo relied on a memo written by a woman who said the wind talks to her and who admitted her own claims were "pretty wackadoodle."

Her former colleague, the late Lou Dobbs, was fired a day after Smartmatic filed suit in early 2021. Former Fox host Tucker Carlson was ousted in 2023 just after the Dominion settlement had been struck and days after a former producer on his primetime show, Abby Grossberg, filed suit against him over workplace issues. Former Fox host Jeanine Pirro, a fellow defendant in both cases, was named last year by Trump as the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.

Bartiromo's departure from Fox was immediate and near absolute.

Her bio page now reads: "Server error. Person not found."