SHOCKING NEWS: Former Fox News host Ed Henry has been sued for alleged rape in 2020, after he sexually assaulted another co-worker during a…see more

Journalist Ed Henry, the ousted Fox News host accused of rape in 2020, is facing additional allegations of sexual misconduct.

Jennifer Eckhart, a former associate producer on Fox Business whose allegations against Henry resulted in his July 2020 firing, filed a new motion in her ongoing legal battle with the news network last week. Henry has denied Eckhart’s claims of assault, arguing the sexual encounter was consensual.

In Eckhart’s motion Monday, her attorney Michael J. Willemin alleges Henry sexually assaulted another female colleague during his time at the news network. Willemin also claims Fox News was made aware of Henry’s alleged behavior at the time by various employees.

“Fox News said it learned about the new assault allegation only during this litigation and that no employees warned executives about Henry engaging in sexual harassment while he was employed at Fox,” the network said in a statement Wednesday to USA TODAY.     

Fox News requested a summary judgment in the case in September — a ruling that would forgo a trial — and claimed they promptly responded to Eckhart’s allegations by suspending Henry and launching an investigation.

In its statement, Fox News said Eckhart and her attorneys are “desperately trying to salvage their case,” adding that the network was “not aware of any relationship between Ms. Eckhart and Mr. Henry or of any allegations of unwelcome sexual activity by Mr. Henry until after she left the company.”

“Fox News’ efforts to put its head in the sand will not be rewarded. After years and years of failing to protect its female employees from sexual harassers and assailants, we look forward to holding Fox News accountable for the damage Ms. Eckhart has suffered before a jury of her peers,” Willemin said in a statement emailed Wednesday to USA TODAY.

“My heart goes out to every other woman that has suffered at the hands of Ed Henry as we have learned in the discovery process of this case that I am not the only survivor and Fox News employee he has groomed and sexually assaulted,” Eckhart told USA TODAY in a statement shared by reps Wednesday.

Attorney: Fox News knew Ed Henry ‘posed a risk to female colleagues’

In the most recent filing, Willemin accused Fox of failing to look into allegations of assault writing, “none of these allegations were ever meaningfully investigated.”

In an earlier memo, Willemin responded to Fox’s move to avoid a trial by saying Henry wants the court “to decide disputed issues of fact that should be entrusted to a jury.”

Past incidents cited in the new filing include Henry’s alleged affair with a Las Vegas stripper in May 2016 and subsequent treatment for sex addiction; using a Fox News-issued device to engage in a “sexting incident”; and engaging in an inappropriate “sexual relationship” with another unnamed colleague.

Fox News “knew that he posed a risk to his female colleagues, staff and subordinates,” the filing reads, with Willemin noting that Henry was suspended following the 2016 affair.

But the network “welcomed him back with open arms, rewarded him by drastically renewing his contract, increasing his pay … promoting him to a highly-coveted anchor role, and continuing to enable and turn a blind eye to his actions, effectively condoning his behavior, as the red flags, complaints and the warning signs piled up,” Willemin said in the filing.

Eckhart’s latest complaint includes an allegation that Henry sexually assaulted another Fox News staffer shortly following his return to the network around 2017. The unnamed female employee provided sworn testimony on the alleged assault as part of Eckhart’s case.

“Fox News’ treatment of Mr. Henry following his return to the network only served to embolden him, as he escalated his abusive treatment of women by not only raping Ms. Eckhart, but also sexually assaulting another Fox News colleague,” Willemin argued. 

Fox pointed to another recent filing’s statement from Eckhart that she did not tell anyone at Fox about her encounters with Henry until after she was fired in 2020 and that Henry had made an effort to conceal the relationship from the network.

In a phone conversation with USA TODAY, Willemin said that while it is true that Eckhart did not disclose Henry’s name, she did bring up a toxic work culture in an interview with HR but was shut down immediately.

Eckhart’s counsel also argued in a brief, “Ms. Eckhart was concerned that any disclosure on her part would filter back to Mr. Henry who had power and influence at Fox News and could get her fired.”

In Eckhart’s Wednesday statement, she said, “I eagerly await my day in court to cast even more light on the immorality of the culture the network continues to promote, and the countless other survivors that have suffered at the hands of pure evil.”

Ed Henry sued for alleged rape following Fox News firing

Henry, who co-anchored “America’s Newsroom,” was terminated from Fox News after the news network said it received a complaint on June 25, 2020, from a former employee’s attorney regarding “willful sexual misconduct in the workplace years ago.”

The following month, Eckhart and guest news analyst Cathy Areu brought a lawsuit against Henry alleging a litany of sexual misconduct, ranging from sexual harassment to forced oral sex. The complaint also revealed that Eckhart was the anonymous accuser whose allegations against Henry led to his firing from Fox.

Eckhart said in the lawsuit that Henry raped her and “left her injured, bruised and battered with bloody wrists” in a New York hotel room “sometime in 2017” and that Fox executives were informed “in graphic and specific detail” about her claim.

The lawsuit also asserted that Fox executives knew Henry had been accused of sexual misconduct long before Eckhart’s initial complaint. “Mr. Henry was not terminated after Fox News learned of these complaints. Upon information and belief, he was not even disciplined,” the filing read. 

Henry refuted Eckhart’s claims of sexual abuse at the time in a statement to USA TODAY, released through his lawyer Catherine Foti. The TV journalist claimed that Eckhart “initiated and completely encouraged a consensual relationship.”

“The #MeToo movement has helped to bring to light a number of injustices in our society, and everyone that has suffered deserves to be heard,” the statement read. “This is not one of those cases.”

(This story has been updated to change a typo in the second paragraph.)

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