Fox News Mole Joe Muto Accused Of Grand Larceny, Served With Search Warrant

Fox News Takes Legal Action Against Mole
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Fox News took legal action against Joe Muto, the former "O'Reilly Factor" associate producer who was outed as the Fox News mole.

Earlier this month, an unidentified employee of Fox News (who later turned out to be Muto) teamed up with gossip website Gawker in an attempt to air the network's dirty laundry for all to see. Before he was caught, Muto leaked a video of host Sean Hannity having friendly conversation with GOP nominee Mitt Romney, and wrote a post about the Fox News bathroom and newsroom's not-so-nice conditions.

Within 24 hours, Fox News announced that they had found the mole and were considering next steps, which included legal action. Within 48 hours, Muto was outed and fired from the network.

Early Wednesday morning, Muto tweeted that he was awakened by "a very police crew from the DA's office" who held a search warrant. Muto wrote that according to the warrant, Fox News was accusing him of grand larceny, among other things. The crew took his laptop, iPhone, and some old notebooks. Muto mocked his former employer as being "pretty worked up" over the video he leaked, which featured Romney discussing his horses.

He then took a jab at Fox News by referencing the News Corp. phone hacking scandal. "I should have done something more innocuous, like hacked a dead girl's phone and interfered with a police investigation," Muto wrote. Muto was referring to News Corp.'s tabloid, News of the World hacking school girl Milly Dowler's cell phone after she went missing. It was initially reported that News of the World deleted voicemails from Dowler's cell phone, therefore tampering with the police investigation. This claim was later disputed.

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Before You Go

Fox News Lineup
Fox & Friends First, 5am(01 of13)
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Fox & Friends, 6am(02 of13)
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America's Newsroom, 9am(03 of13)
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Happening Now, 11am(04 of13)
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America Live with Megyn Kelly, 1pm(05 of13)
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Studio B with Shepard Smith, 3pm(06 of13)
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Your World with Neil Cavuto, 4pm(07 of13)
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The Five, 5pm(08 of13)
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Special Report with Bret Baier, 6pm(09 of13)
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FOX Report with Shepard Smith, 7pm(10 of13)
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The O'Reilly Factor, 8pm(11 of13)
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Hannity, 9pm(12 of13)
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On the Record with Greta, 10pm(13 of13)
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