It was a cloudy forecast for “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin as her husband was charged in an insurance fraud lawsuit that became a “big deal” for ABC News, according to sources.
“It was discussed internally,” one source said Fox News Digital situations 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 to The Daily MailHostin and the other defendants allegedly accepted bribes to perform operations and falsely bill an insurance company that supplies Uber and Lyft drivers, as well as a taxi company. The suit alleges that Hostin received 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 the allegations and called the filing “a blanket, scattered, baseless lawsuit by an insurance carrier that is near bankruptcy.”
‘THE VIEW’ STAR SUNNY HOSTIN’S SURGEON HUSBAND ACCUSED OF INSURANCE FRAUD IN FEDERAL LAWSUIT
dr. Emmanuel Hostin, husband of “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin, is accused of insurance fraud in a sweeping federal lawsuit filed in New York last month. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty)
A former ABC insider said Hostin was always the first to jump on Republicans when they did anything wrong 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 thing online.” “It’s death by a thousand cuts. This is just another thing people don’t believe [The View] and not take them seriously.”
As co-host of “The View” and ABC’s senior legal correspondent, Hostin is often cited her background as a lawyer to weigh in on major legal stories that have made headlines, most notably the series of criminal charges filed against President-elect Donald Trump. Hostin is known for sarcastically reading Trump’s denials of the allegations against him when he was discussed on the program.
“Sunny Hostin is only going to look dumber when she talks about ethics and morality and the rule of law,” said Fox News contributor Joe Concha.
Sunny Hostin, second from right, is one of the few reliably liberal hosts on “The View.” (Screenshot/ABC News)
Many media experts, such as Cornell Law School professor and media critic William A. Jacobson, don’t think the legal drama rocking the Hostin household will have much of an effect on ABC News or the anchor position on “The View.”
“It would be a stretch to suggest that anything he did or didn’t do was related to Ms. Hostin, much less her ability to offer her opinion on ‘The View,'” Jacobson told Fox News Digital.
DePauw University journalism professor Jeffrey McCall similarly predicted the scandal is unlikely to move the needle because ABC News will “stay away” from covering the lawsuit in an ever-packed news cycle preparing for Trump’s return to the White House.
“There’s a certain sensationalism to Sunny being an outspoken person on a fairly noisy commentary program, 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. The representative of Hostin also did not comment.
SUNNY HOSTIN COMPARES JANUARY 6 REBELLION TO HOLOCAUST, SAYS ‘WE CAN NEVER FORGET’
Media experts say that the legal scandal of dr. Emmanuel Hostin won’t affect Sunny Hostin’s position 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 Bezos Awards for Courage and Civility)
Disney-owned ABC is still struggling with him $16 million settlement with Trump after suing 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 when discussing the health insurance industry after the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
“Doctors also suffer because of big corporations, doctors who want to do good like my husband,” Hostin she said to her colleagues. “[He] he operates on someone without insurance and then has to sue the health insurance companies to get paid for the job he trained his whole life to do.”
‘THE VIEW’ HOST SUNNY HOSTIN’S SURGEON HUSBAND FACES YEAR-LONG FIGHT IN FRAUD CASE
In addition, comments Hostin made in March 2023 about the seriousness of insurance fraud went viral this week as she discussed potential charges against former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who was serving time in prison for tax fraud.
“Prosecutors are like, ‘Oh really? Well, how about we add some more fraud charges to you?’ And they’re talking about threatening him with insurance fraud, which I would say could get you 20 years in prison, so that’s a death sentence for him,” Hostin he said at the time.
Legal experts tell Fox News Digital that the $459 million lawsuit involving Dr. Hostin and his co-accused could be held in court for years.
The suit was brought under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, in the Eastern District of New York—a strategy that legal experts say is designed to have a chilling effect on behavior. It’s also one that risks entangling defendants like Hostin in years of complex litigation—and potentially burdening them with huge payouts as a result.
American Transit claims Hostin and other defendants abused New York’s no-fault laws to collect “hundreds of millions” of dollars in fraudulent payments between 2009 and December 2024.
Fox News Digital’s Breanne Deppisch contributed to this report.
