Amid ongoing negotiations over Fox News boss Roger Ailes’ exit from the network, attorneys for fired Fox anchor Gretchen Carlson said accusations of sexual harassment against Ailes have poured in from more than 20 women.
The legal team for Carlson, who is suing Ailes in New Jersey court for sexual harassment and retaliation, told the Guardian US that women have called and emailed the offices in droves since Carlson’s suit was filed two weeks ago.
Her legal team didn’t detail the women’s allegations beyond saying they stem from Ailes’ current role as CEO of Fox News and reach as far back as his tenure as a producer on “The Mike Douglas Show” in the 1960s.
“The messages are still coming in,” John Garger, a spokesperson for Nancy Erika Smith, one of Carlson’s attorneys, told the newspaper.
The announcement from Carlson’s legal team comes the same week it was reported that Ailes is planning to exit the network he helped build into a conservative media powerhouse amid the swirling sexual harassment allegations.
Carlson’s lawsuit sparked an independent probe into Ailes’ management. New York Magazine reported that Fox News superstar Megyn Kelly told investigators Ailes sexually harassed her as a young correspondent, too. Ailes strenuously denied both anchors’ allegations through his lawyers.
