Ousted Fox News chairman Roger Ailes has hired the lawyer behind an expanding constellation of lawsuits brought against major media outlets in order to pursue a possible lawsuit against New York magazine and its reporter Gabriel Sherman.
The Financial Times first reported Monday that Charles J. Harder sent an email to the magazine requesting that all documents related to Ailes be preserved for a possible defamation suit. Sherman spearheaded reporting on the spate of sexual harassment allegations that led to Ailes’ resignation from Fox News, and has chronicled Ailes’ reign at the right-wing media empire for years as a writer for New York.
Though Sherman did not issue a public comment on the legal threat, his magazine told the New York Times that his work “is and has been carefully reported.”
Harder’s name has cropped up in a number of defamation suits and warnings against publications in the past year. The Hollywood attorney represented Hulk Hogan, the former pro wrestler whose given name is Terry Bollea, in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit that resulted in the bankruptcy of Gawker Media. Before the site’s flagship publication was forced to fold, Harder sent Gawker lawyers a letter threatening legal action for a story that alleged that Donald Trump’s hair might actually be a “$60,000 weave” made by a secretive hair treatment clinic.
Billionaire Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel revealed that he had bankrolled Hogan’s lawsuit in a targeted effort to take down Gawker. It was unclear if Thiel had any involvement in the threat related to Trump’s hair.
Thiel endorsed the real estate mogul and served as a pledged delegate for California on his behalf at the Republican National Convention.
Harder, the lawyer Thiel retained in the Hogan suit, is also representing Melania Trump in a $150 million lawsuit filed against The Daily Mail last week for what she said was a false story about her working as an “escort” in the 1990s. At least nine other outlets, including The Week(UK), Politico, Inquisitr, Tarpley, Before It’s News, Liberal America, LawNewz, Winning Democrats and Bipartisan Report, were put on notice by Harder’s team of lawyers for picking up or referencing the Daily Mail’s report.
Which once again proves the old adage that “there’s nothing some attorney’s won’t do for money”…
See pro femminist, former Dukakis campaign manager, Susan Estrich leading Ailes legal defense team.
I’m going to go out on a strong limb here and bet my next day’s meals that Sherman’s pieces have been well-researched and he has great documentation … so, NY Magazine is on solid ground.
As to the other issue, Melania’s libel lawsuit against the Mail Online, the other publications are 100% in the clear because all they did was reference the Mail Online story, they did not make the allegations, nor did they attempt to embellish them. All they did was report the Mail Online had a particular story, they sought out Melania’s response, etc., and they reported on that. To date, though, Mail Online has retracted their story and formally apologized to Melania. They were cowed by the deep pockets Trump has access to, likely drawing out this suit for years.
Go ahead and sue 'em if you think you have a case, fat boy. Just a bunch of strong-arm bluster otherwise. Fat boy.
Just one word Ailes and his attorneys should keep in mind: discovery. Could be a goldmine for other FoxBabes looking to file civil suits.