Ex-Fox News analyst accuses host of rape
Hughes alleges network retaliated against her
Former Fox News guest commentator Scottie Nell Hughes is suing Fox News and Fox Business Network host Charles Payne charging that Payne raped her and that the network retaliated against her when she came forward with the allegation.
Hughes filed her lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York charging 21st Century Fox, Fox News and Payne, alleging defamation, gender-motivated violence, retaliation, and discrimination.
Payne, the host of the network’s show “Making Money,” recently returned to the air after Fox suspended him in July while the company investigated sexual harassment allegations. Payne acknowledged having what he called a “romantic relationship” with a married female political analyst who frequently appeared on Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel.
Hughes, a native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, is a well-known Trump surrogate and Tennessee conservative who is considering running for Congress now that current Rep. Diane Black is running for governor in 2018.
Payne’s attorney, Jonathan Halpern, a partner at the Chicago law firm Foley & Lardner LLP, said Payne “vehemently denies any wrongdoing and will defend himself vigorously against this baseless complaint. We are confident that when the evidence is presented in this case, Mr. Payne will be fully vindicated and these outrageous accusations against him will be confirmed as completely false.”
The suit is the latest of several complaints filed against Fox News since the 2016 resignation of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who died in May. Two months later, Fox settled a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Ailes by former “Fox & Friends” host Gretchen Carlson.
In April, Fox dismissed host Bill O’Reilly, after an internal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.
Most recently, Fox News Channel host Eric Bolling left the network and it canceled his show. Bolling had been suspended by Fox after a report in The Huffington Post that he had sent three of his current and former co-workers an unsolicited text message showing male genitalia.
In her lawsuit, Hughes alleges she was sexually assaulted and raped by Payne in 2013. Subsequently, she was asked to appear on Fox shows more frequently and Payne coerced her into a sexual relationship “in exchange for career opportunities and benefits,” she alleges in the lawsuit. “Payne used his position of power to pressure Ms. Hughes into submission,” the suit says.
When Hughes tried to terminate the relationship, she alleges, Payne became “enraged and physically violent.”
Hughes did cut off contact with Payne and saw her Fox appearances drop from four or five a week to five times over a 10-month period, according to the complaint.
Earlier this year, Hughes’ agent was told that Hughes was not getting booked for shows because she “had an affair with someone at Fox and we were told not to book her,” she says in the lawsuit. Hughes had also learned that she was taken out of consideration for positions in the Trump administration because “Fox had labeled her as ‘not bookable,’ ” the lawsuit says.
Hughes said Fox News Co-President Bill Shine had been responsible for that treatment after Payne’s wife contacted Shine, she alleges in the suit, filed by her attorney, Doug Wigdor.
“The latest publicity stunt of a lawsuit filed by Doug Wigdor has absolutely no merit and is downright shameful,” Fox News said in a statement. “We will vigorously defend this.”