In 2017, Austyn D. Crites filed a lawsuit against Fox News concerning certain alleged defamatory statements made during a November 7, 2016 segment on Fox & Friends. That lawsuit has since been dismissed. Fox News issued the following statement:  

July 2019  

Dear Mr. Austyn D. Crites:  

On November 7, 2016, Fox & Friends aired a segment about voter fraud naming you as an individual. You have asked us to make clear that the segment contained a number of statements which, in hindsight, we accept should not have been published.  

The introduction to the segment identified you as a reminder of the existence of voter fraud. The segment stated that you were suspected of voter fraud. The segment stated that your grandmother had been dead since 2002 and had been using your address in Reno, Nevada, to vote absentee for years. The segment was posted on the Fox News YouTube Channel which stated that you were linked to voter fraud.  

We would like to correct the foregoing statements.  

We now know that your grandmother did not die in 2002, as alleged in the segment. In fact, we now understand that both of your grandmothers are alive. We now do not believe that you committed voter fraud by voting in the name of your grandmother. We do not contend, and never intended to contend, that you committed voter fraud or that you committed a federal felony.  

The segment stated that many thought you had a gun at the Donald Trump for President rally in Reno, Nevada which you attended on November 5, 2016. We now know that you did not have a  gun at the rally and that the United States Secret Service has not identified a weapon found at the rally.  

We retract the untrue statements we made about you that are corrected by this letter. We apologize to you and your entire family for any embarrassment caused by our publication of these statements.  

Sincerely,  

FOX News Network, LLC