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There’s been a cloudy outlook for “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin as her husband has been accused in a lawsuit of committing insurance fraud, which has become a “big deal” at ABC News, according to news reports. sources.
“It has been discussed internally,” says a source. Fox News Digital of the situation on the ABC talk show. “But no one is sure what to do with it.”
Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Emmanuel “Manny” Hostin and his practice, Hostin Orthopedics & Sports Medicine, were named among more than 180 defendants in a major RICO case filed in New York last month.
According The daily mailHostin and the other defendants allegedly received kickbacks for performing surgeries and fraudulently billing the insurance company that provides services to Uber and Lyft drivers, as well as taxi companies. The lawsuit alleges that Hostin was given an “investment” interest in Empire State Ambulatory Surgery Center while receiving a “steady stream” of patient referrals in return.
Hostin’s lawyer told The Daily Mail that his client denies all allegations and called the filing a “blanket, scattered and meritless lawsuit by a nearly bankrupt insurance company.”
Dr. Emmanuel Hostin, husband of “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin, was accused of insurance fraud in a wide-ranging federal lawsuit filed in New York last month. (He Dipasupil/Getty)
One former ABC staffer said Hostin was always the first to jump down a Republican’s throat when he did something bad on “The View” and “now she doesn’t even talk about it on the show.”
“It’s pretty hypocritical,” they said, saying the controversy had become “a big deal at the network.” “It’s death by a thousand cuts. This is just another thing to make people not trust (The View) and not take them seriously.”
As co-host of “The View” and ABC’s senior legal correspondent, Hostin often quotes his background as an attorney to weigh in on major legal stories that have made headlines, particularly the litany of criminal charges brought against President-elect Donald Trump. Hostin is known for giving sarcastic readings of Trump’s denials of the charges against him when they are discussed on the show.
“Sunny Hostin will only look dumber when she pontificates about ethics, morality and the rule of law,” said Fox News contributor Joe Concha.
Sunny Hostin, second from right, is one of several reliably liberal hosts on “The View.” (Screenshot/ABC News)
Many media experts, such as Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson, do not believe that the legal drama rocking the Hostin family will have much effect on ABC News or the anchor’s standing before ” “The View.”
“It would be a stretch to claim that everything he did or didn’t do relates to Ms. Hostin, much less her ability to offer her opinions on ‘The View,'” Jacobson told Fox News Digital.
DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall similarly predicted that the scandal likely won’t be a game-changer, as ABC News “will stay away” from covering the lawsuit in a constantly packed news cycle gearing up for the Trump’s return to the White House.
“There’s a certain sensationalism to it in the sense that Sunny is an outspoken personality on a pretty strident commentary show, but the interest factor is probably pretty low for most American news consumers,” McCall said.
ABC News did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. A representative for Hostin also had no comment.
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Media experts say Dr. Emmanuel Hostin’s legal scandal won’t affect Sunny Hostin’s standing at ABC News, but they say it could put her in an awkward position to pontificate about morality and the law in the future. (Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for the Bezos Courage and Civility Awards)
Disney-owned ABC is still smarting from its $16 million deal with Trump after he sued the network and “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos for defamation.
Hostin has remained silent about her husband’s legal troubles since the lawsuit was filed in December, but that hasn’t stopped her from commenting on her husband’s work, as she did last month while discussing the health insurance industry after the Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“Doctors also suffer because of large corporations, doctors who want to do good like my husband,” Hostin he told his colleagues. “(He) operates on someone even though they don’t have insurance and then has to sue health insurance companies to get paid for the work he’s been trained to do all his life.”
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Additionally, comments Hostin made in March 2023 about the seriousness of insurance fraud went viral this week while discussing possible charges against former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who had been serving a prison sentence for fraud. fiscal.
“Prosecutors say, ‘Really? Well, how about we add some additional fraud charges?’ And they’re talking about threatening him with insurance fraud, which I would say could get him 20 years in prison, so that’s a death sentence for him,” Hostin said. he said at that time.
Legal experts tell Fox News Digital that the $459 million lawsuit involving Dr. Hostin and his co-defendants could keep them in court for years.
The lawsuit was filed under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) in the Eastern District of New York, a strategy that legal experts say is designed to have a chilling effect. in behavior. It is also a process that risks entangling defendants like Hostin in years of complex court proceedings and potentially saddling them with massive payouts as a result.
American Transit alleges that Hostin and other defendants abused New York’s no-fault laws to bill “hundreds of millions” of dollars in fraudulent payments between 2009 and December 2024.
Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
