Fired Fox News host Ed Henry filed a defamation lawsuit against the network and its CEO, Suzanne Scott, alleging that he was publicly painted as a “sex criminal” in an attempt to save Scott’s reputation.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey and comes almost a year after Henry was accused in a complaint of “violently” raping former Fox Business producer Jennifer Eckhart and sending “wildly inappropriate sexual images” to another woman.
The suit says that Henry and Eckhart engaged in a consensual relationship that ended in 2017. It does not specifically address the claims made by the second woman.
Henry was fired by Fox News in July, shortly before the women’s allegations became public. In a statement, the network said it had become aware of sexual misconduct allegations involving Henry and had terminated him “based on the investigative findings.”
In his suit, Henry accuses Scott and the network of turning against him and abruptly firing him while “publicly humiliating him in the process.” It says that when the network released its statement announcing the termination, Scott insinuated that Henry was guilty of sexual misconduct.
