Two women who received settlements after suing Fox News and Bill O’Reilly for sexual harassment filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday, accusing the network and its former star of publicly calling them liars and extortionists.
Former Fox Business Network host Rebecca Gomez Diamond of New Jersey and former producer Andrea Mackris of Missouri joined the lawsuit filed by Rachel Witleib Bernstein last month which accused O’Reilly of publicly disparaging her.
The lawsuit claims O’Reilly and Fox have made numerous false statements claiming no women had ever complained to Human Resources or to a confidential hotline about O’Reilly’s behavior. In doing so, Fox and O’Reilly violated a non-disparagement clause all sides had signed when the settlements were reached, according to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New York.
“These women were specifically identified in (an April) NY Times article, to which O’Reilly and Fox responded with false and defamatory statements,” according to a statement from their attorney Nancy Erika Smith of Montclair. “They are tired of being smeared with lies by a bully who thinks his victims are afraid to answer them.”
wpDiscuz