After several women anonymously spoke to CNN and the Daily Beast this week to accuse journalist Mark Halperin of sexual misconduct, another woman came forward on the record Thursday to accuse Halperin of inappropriate behavior.
Dianna May told the Washington Post that while she was a researcher at ABC News in 1994, Halperin, who was the network’s political director at the time, had her sit on his lap on multiple occasions.
May said that she asked Halperin for information for a story, and he told her to come to his office. Halperin asked May to close the door and motioned for her to sit on his lap, she told the Post. She told the Washington Post that she did not want to sit on his lap but that she thought rejecting Halperin could hurt her career. When she sat on his lap, he had an erection, May told the Post. Similar incidents occurred three or four more times, she said.
“I didn’t know what to do,” May told the Post. “He was important. He wasn’t my superior, but he was certainly in a superior position to mine. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t know how to at the time. I knew it was wrong.”
“It was gross,” she added. “He’s gross. He’s gross.”
May’s accusation came after several women alleged sexual misconduct by Halperin while he was in a top position in the ABC News newsroom.
As women came forward with the allegations on Wednesday and Thursday, Halperin lost book and television deals. NBC News dropped him as a contributor, Penguin Press cancelled a planned book by Halperin and John Heilemann, and HBO nixed a project connected to Halperin’s forthcoming book. The Showtime network released a statement saying it would consider the allegations when deciding whether to produce a second season of “The Circus,” a series with Halperin about the election.
Halperin apologized for the incidents in a statement to CNN but merely described his behavior as pursuing “relationships with women that I worked with, including some junior to me.”
Five women told CNN for a story published Wednesday that Halperin sexually harassed them while at ABC News. Several of the women said that Halperin had propositioned them while reporting on the campaign trail. A few of the women accused Halperin of rubbing his genitals against them while clothed. Halperin denied these latter accusations in an interview with the Washington Post.
On Thursday morning, writer Emily Miller said she was also a victim of Halperin’s harassment. A woman then told the Daily Beast that Halperin made unwanted advances during a meeting in his office, “lunging” at her and backing her into a corner.
