Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky on Monday filed a lawsuit against the network alleging that top executives retaliated against her when she refused inappropriate sexual advances made by former CEO Roger Ailes.
Roginsky filed the suit against Fox News, the network’s co-president Bill Shine and its former CEO Roger Ailes, who resigned amid a corporate probe into several sexual harassment claims against him.
In the lawsuit, Roginsky alleged that Ailes commented on her personal life and attractiveness and “insisted on a kiss ‘hello'” during private meetings with Roginsky. When she refused his advances, Roginsky alleged, Ailes refused to meet with her and took her out of regular rotation on Fox’s “The Five.”
Roginsky also alleged in the suit that Shine and Fox News retaliated against her for refusing and complaining about Ailes’ advances, as well as her refusal to “publicly disparage Gretchen Carlson” when Carlson brought charges of sexual harassment against Ailes in July 2016.
Ailes left Fox with a $40 million “exit package” in the same month. The network settled Carlson’s suit in September 2016 for a reported $20 million and offered an unprecedented public apology.
Fox News did not respond to TPM’s request for comment. Ailes’ lawyer Susan Estrich called Roginsky’s allegations “total hogwash.”
“Mr. Ailes vociferously denies her allegations,” Estrich said in a statement.
Susan Estrich, who represents Roger Ailes, dismisses @julieroginsky’s harassment allegations as “total hogwash” https://t.co/jSr1ImU2i7 pic.twitter.com/BhZsXktMdg
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) April 3, 2017
The lawsuit comes on the heels of an investigation published Saturday by the New York Times which revealed that at least five women took a total of $13 million in settlements after accusing top Fox News host Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment.
According to the Times, their initial complaints against O’Reilly encompassed “verbal abuse, lewd comments, unwanted advances and phone calls in which it sounded like Mr. O’Reilly was masturbating.”
Read Roginsky’s lawsuit:
