Ed Henry was fired after Fox Network received a complaint from a lawyer for a former staff member
Former Fox News employee Jennifer Eckhart filed a lawsuit Monday in New York federal court against Fox News and former network presenter Ed Henry, accusing her of raping her.
The complaint says Henry “groomed, psychologically manipulated and coerced [her] to have sex with him, and that, when she willingly refused to submit, he sexually assaulted her on office property and raped her in a hotel. “
In a statement on behalf of Henry, his lawyer Catherine Foti said the evidence would show that Eckhart “initiated and completely encouraged a consensual relationship”.
In a separate statement, a Fox News spokeswoman said Eckhart and co-complainant Cathy Areu, a guest of the network, could pursue their claims against Henry directly with him because the network “has already taken swift action. as soon as he learned of Ms Eckhart’s allegations on June 25 and Mr Henry is no longer employed by the network. “
The cable news network, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp, said on July 1 it fired Henry after receiving a complaint from a former employee’s lawyer and hiring a law firm to investigate.
Monday’s complaint alleges the network knew Henry had engaged in sexual misconduct as early as early 2017.
The Fox News spokeswoman said in a subsequent statement Monday: “There had been no sexual harassment complaints against Ed Henry to Fox News prior to Jennifer Eckhart’s complaint on June 25, 2020.”
Areu alleges that Henry sent her “a series of extremely inappropriate sexual images and videos” and suggested that he would help her with her career if she had sex with him.
Areu also alleges that Fox News presenters Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, host Howard Kurtz and political analyst Gianno Caldwell were sexually harassed and retaliated against Areu.
Asked to comment on the trial allegations, Foti said, “Ed Henry is pleased to present real facts and evidence, which will contradict the fictitious accounts contained in the complaint.”
In its statement, the network said that based on an investigation by an external law firm that included interviews with numerous witnesses, it was determined that Areu’s allegations against the network, its management, Carlson, Hannity, Kurtz, and Caldwell are “false, patently frivolous, and utterly devoid of merit. Of any merit.”
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Carlson, Hannity, Kurtz or Caldwell, but Fox News said its statement was a response on behalf of the four men. Eckhart was an associate producer at Fox Business Network.
In 2016, Roger Ailes resigned as Fox News chief executive officer after former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson sued him for sexual harassment, charges he denied.
The network agreed to pay $ 20 million to settle Carlson’s lawsuit.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
