Ex-Fox News anchor Ed Henry is accused of assaulting another female colleague after returning from 'sex addict's camp' in bombshell new court filing
Former Fox News anchor Ed Henry - who was fired over sexual misconduct claims in 2020 - has been accused of assaulting another colleague after he'd returned from an employer-mandated 'sex addiction rehab program.'
Henry, who has been described as 'Weinstein-esque, but worse,' currently hosts a show at competitor Newsmax and has denied all allegations. The details came to light as part of ongoing litigation against the network.
Jennifer Eckhart, a former associate producer for Fox Business Network who sued Henry in 2020, alleges that Fox News was negligent, saying the broadcaster knew or should have known that Henry coerced her into a commercial sex act.
Eckhart acknowledges in her suit that she never told Fox of her encounters with the anchor and Henry also never admitted these encounters to the broadcaster.
As the case remains mired in court, Michael J. Wilemin - Eckhart's attorney - has filed a 39-page motion in response to Fox's attempt to get a summary judgement.
The brief contains lurid new claims of another Fox News staffer was assaulted by Henry despite several co-workers warning top executives at the network.
Fox 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.
Eckhart's suit notes that Fox had previously suspended Henry from covering Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign after his alleged affair with a cocktail waitress in Las Vegas came to light and later sent him to sex addiction rehab.
Ed Henry, a former Fox News anchor who was described as 'Weinstein-esque, but worse' when he was fired over sexual misconduct claims in 2020 , has been accused of assaulting another colleague
Jennifer Eckhart, a former associate producer for Fox Business Network, sued Henry in 2020 alleges that Fox News violated federal sex-trafficking laws, saying Fox knew or should have known that Henry coerced her into a commercial sex act
The suit claims this is proof Fox 'knew' Henry was a 'significant risk' and 'failed to investigate' past allegations against the anchor and that his issues were not 'a single consensual affair' but consistent 'workplace sexual misconduct.'
Fox argues that the evidence proves that it did not become aware of any allegation that Henry engaged in unwelcome sexual conduct until after Henry and Eckhart had both left the company.
After Henry returned from what some described as 'sex addict's camp', an anonymous staffer said she was sexually assaulted by the anchor.
'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 wrote.
He also alleges that the network's Washington bureau helped Henry cover up allegations of sexting while using a Fox-issued phone and engaging in an inappropriate 'sexual relationship' with an additional co-worker.
The then-22-year-old co-worker, who the filing claims was dealing with a 'severe imbalance of power' with her superior Henry, said that he is a 'predator' who coerced her to have sex in his office.
Eckhart, who is now the host of podcast Reinvented with Jennifer Eckhart, also claims he sent an unsolicited photo of his penis to the co-worker and claims she told Fox colleagues about it in 2016, before Henry's suspension or Eckhart's allegations.
Willemin writes that Fox Business anchor Liz Claman told Eckhart in 2016: 'Everyone at Fox News knows that Ed Henry is a sex addict. That's no secret.'
He also cites a former colleague at CNN, where Henry worked until 2011, who posted on X after the allegations: 'No chance @foxnews didn't know about Ed Henry. He was a menace to many of us on the comms side when he was @cnn and everyone talked about it. Literally so so so gross.'
Willemin also includes a page and a half of additional sexual misconduct allegations against Fox News employees, some of whom still work at the company.
The network, as it has previously, repeated its denial of any wrongdoing in a statement to Mediaite.
As the case remains in litigation, Michael J. Wilemin - Eckhart's attorney - has filed a 39-page motion to try and block Fox's attempt to get a summary judgement
'After having missed their deadline for filing, the lawyers for Ms. Eckhart are now desperately trying to salvage their case. As discovery in this matter has confirmed, FOX News 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.'
Willemin responded with a statement, saying: 'As made clear in today's filings, there is no merit to Fox News' or Ed Henry's desperate attempts to extricate themselves from this case.'
'We firmly believe that Fox News and Mr. Henry are going to be held accountable by a jury or Ms. Eckhart's peers, and we are very much looking forward to pushing this case to trial.'
Eckhart posted to her Instagram story after the filing.
'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.'
'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.
At the time, Fox News said that once they heard the allegations, Henry was quickly let go.
Willemin also includes a page and a half of additional sexual misconduct allegations against Fox News employees, some of whom still work at the company
Eckhart posted to her Instagram story after the filing
'Upon first learning of Jennifer Eckhart's allegations in 2020, Fox News promptly conducted an investigation by an outside independent law firm, which resulted in senior management and HR terminating Ed Henry within six days,' they said in a statement at the time.
Eckhart then sued Henry and the network for what she claims was a rape in 2017.
Her lawsuit also claimed Henry had targeted her and other women who responded to his advances because they worried about their jobs.
Henry eventually moved to Real America's Voice, where he was accused of sending a younger staffer a photo of himself with a stripper, according to The Daily Beast.
Since 2022, Henry has worked at Newsmax.
