Ted Cruz Fox News tapes are being handed over to the Justice Department for its Jan. 6 inquiry

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

WASHINGTON — Recordings of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz telling Fox News host Maria Bartiromo about his plan to delay the certification of President Joe Biden's 2020 election victory will reportedly be handed over to federal prosecutors investigating efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the election.

FLASHBACK: What Sen. Ted Cruz said as he led the Jan. 6 effort to block President Joe Biden’s win

The recordings, part of a legal battle between Fox News and a former producer for the network, drew the attention of Special Counsel Jack Smith after they were aired on MSNBC earlier this week, an attorney for the producer told CNN.

“They reached out to us after we publicized some of the tapes,” said Gerry Filippatos, who is representing the producer, Abby Grossberg. “We’re in the process of negotiating a targeted subpoena for Abby’s electronic data, so they can have what they want.”

Filippatos did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

In the recordings, Cruz lays out a plan that he was pushing publicly at the time: He wanted to establish a commission to investigate fraud claims and make a final call on the legitimacy of the election. The audio has sparked renewed scrutiny of Cruz's efforts leading up to Jan. 6, when he was a key figure in the push to delay the transfer of power.

"I think that the country deserves to have a credible assessment of these claims and what the evidence shows and the mechanism to try to force that is denying certification on the sixth," Cruz said in the recordings.

FIRED FROM FOX: Carlson latest in string of high-profile Fox News oustings

When asked by Bartiromo who would decide who gets inaugurated, Cruz responded: "It would be the results of that commission and what they find and if they found credible evidence of fraud that undermines confidence in the electoral results in a given state, they would report on that."

Cruz has dismissed the recordings and accused MSNBC of "breathlessly reporting that I 'secretly' said in a phone call … the EXACT same thing I said on national television the next morning!

"And then said again on the Senate floor four days later," Cruz tweeted.

Cruz's office put out a press release on Jan. 2, 2021, saying he and 10 other Republican senators would object to certifying Biden's win and instead push for Congress to "immediately appoint an electoral commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states.

"Once completed, individual states would evaluate the commission's findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed," the press release said.

In a speech on the Senate floor on Jan. 6, just minutes before the Capitol was stormed by protesters, Cruz told his colleagues, "I am not arguing for setting aside the results of this election."

He went on to explain that he believed there was precedent for Congress to establish a panel to make the call, pointing to an electoral commission established after the disputed 1876 presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden.

"This Congress appointed an electoral commission to examine claims of voter fraud — five house members, five senators, five supreme court justices examined the evidence and rendered a judgment," Cruz said. "What I would urge of this body is that we do the same — that we appoint an electoral commission to conduct a 10-day emergency audit, consider the evidence and resolve the claims."

The recordings are evidence in a lawsuit against Fox by Grossberg, who worked as a producer on Bartiromo's show and as head of booking for Tucker Carlson, who was fired earlier this week. Grossberg claims the network's attorneys pressured her into giving misleading testimony in a defamation case against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems, which ended with a $787.5 million settlement earlier this month.

Fox has denied Grossberg's claims and has since fired her.

"Fox News engaged an independent outside counsel to immediately investigate the concerns raised by Ms. Grossberg, which were made following a critical performance review," the company said in a statement. "Her allegations in connection with the Dominion case are baseless and we will continue to vigorously defend Fox against her unmeritorious legal claims which are riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees.”