Fox News is facing more allegations of sexual misconduct as two women filed a lawsuit Monday in which former anchor Ed Henry is accused of rape and network …
Fox News is facing more allegations of sexual misconduct as two women filed a lawsuit Monday in which former anchor Ed Henry is accused of rape and network executives are accused of knowing of his alleged behavior and ignoring it long before he was fired this month.
The lawsuit, some of it so graphic that it includes a « trigger warning » notice, was filed in federal civil court in the Southern District of New York.
The lawyers representing the accusers, Douglas H. Wigdor and Michael J. Willemin, declined to comment to USA TODAY on whether the crimes alleged in the lawsuit are being investigated by law enforcement. The two lawyers also represent numerous accusers of convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein who have sued him in civil court for damages.
The lawsuit was filed by Jennifer Eckhart and Cathy Areu, the first a former associate producer on Fox Business, and the other a former frequent guest as a news analyst on Fox shows.
« Fox News continues to protect and reward perpetrators of sexual harassment and refuses to take accountability for putting such persons in positions of power from which they can subject women to sexual misconduct, sexual assault and, in the case of Ms. Eckhart, rape. Some of the names in leadership may have changed since (former CEOf) Roger Ailes’ regime, but Fox News’ institutional apathy towards sexual misconduct has not, » the lawsuit asserts.
Fox News rejected some of the lawsuit in a statement to USA TODAY as « patently frivolous and utterly devoid of any merit, » while pointing to Henry’s firing as the « appropriate » response.
Eckhart was the anonymous accuser whose allegations against Henry led to his firing on July 1, according to the lawsuit. The « America’s Newsroom » co-anchor was terminated after Fox News said it received a complaint on June 25 from a former employee’s attorney regarding « willful sexual misconduct in the workplace years ago. »
Eckhart says in the lawsuit that Henry raped her and « left her injured, bruised and battered with bloody wrists » in a New York hotel room « sometime in 2017 » and that Fox executives were informed « in graphic and specific detail » about her claim.
He also allegedly took pictures of her on his cellphone. « Ms. Eckhart did not consent to any part of this violent, painful rape, » the lawsuit says.
