Ed Henry, a former Fox News personality, has been charged with sexually assaulting and harassing a female coworker.
A court petition by former Fox News executive producer Jennifer Eckhart uncovered new allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Henry, according to Knewz.com.
In 2020, Eckhart filed a lawsuit against Henry, alleging that he had raped her in 2017. Fox News fired Henry after discovering Eckhart’s allegations, despite his strong denials of them.
Following the firing of Henry, Fox News issued the following statement: “Upon first learning of Jennifer Eckhart s allegations in 2020, Fox News promptly conducted aninvestigationby an outside independent law firm, which resulted in senior management and HR terminating Ed Henry within six days.”
Michael J. Willemin, Eckhart’s lawyer, filed a 39-page motion on Wednesday opposing Fox News’ motion for summary judgment. The motion contained shocking new allegations that Henry had assaulted a female coworker while working for the network and that several employees had voiced concerns to superiors about Henry’s actions.
According to Mediaite, the motion also said that other male coworkers who were allegedly still working at Fox News had engaged in sexual misconduct and harassment.
Eckhart “did not tell anyone about her sexual encounters with Henry” and “did not raise any complaints about sexual harassment or retaliation until after her termination from” Fox News, which denied any misconduct on multiple occasions.
Eckhart has previously acknowledged that she kept her interactions with Henry a secret until after her termination in 2020.
“Fox News learned about the new assault allegation only during this litigation and that no employees warned executives about Henry engaging in sexual harassment while he was employed at Fox,” the network said in an exclusive statement on Tuesday.
The network “argues that the evidence proves that it did not become aware of any allegation that Henry engaged in unwelcome sexual conduct until after Henry and Eckhart had both left the company,” according to Fox News’ summary judgment motion.
In reaction to Eckhart’s most recent filing, Fox News issued the following statement: “Ms. Eckhart’s attorneys are now frantically attempting to rescue their case after missing their filing deadline.
“As discovery in this matter has confirmed, FOX News was not aware of anyrelationshipbetween Ms. Eckhart and Mr. Henry or of any allegations of unwelcome sexual activity by Mr. Henry until after she left the company.”
Despite the network’s ongoing denial of accountability, Eckhart’s attorney contended that in 2017, they “failed to investigate” the charges of sexual misconduct and “knew” Henry posed a “significant risk” due to his prior behavior.
Additionally, Fox News was charged by Willemin of establishing a “safe haven for men who engage in sexual harassment and assault.”
Eckhart’s lawyer pointed out that Henry’s previous actions included a “affair” with Las Vegasstripper in 2016, which resulted in a pay suspension from the network and a need to seek treatment for a sexual addiction.
However, Willemin added that Henry’s actions went beyond “a single consensual affair” and instead constituted a pattern of “workplace sexual misconduct,” including a “sexual relationship” with another coworker and the use of a network phone to engage in “a’sexting incident’ that the ‘DC Bureau helped Ed cover-up,’before Fox News learned about Mr. Henry’s affair with a stripper.”
The motion read as follows: “This sexual relationship, which featured a similar and serious power imbalance, started in November 2016 following Mr. Henry’s return from suspension and preceded the rape of Ms. Eckhart in February 2017.”
The colleague, whose name was withheld, “has described Mr. Henry as a ‘predator,’ who used the ‘power imbalance’ to get her to engage in a relationship, including coercing her to engage in sex acts in Mr. Henry’s office that were ‘predatory,’ ’emotionally abusive,’ and ‘not as ‘consensual’ as (she) thought,” according to the motion.
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