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Fox News Wins Dismissal of Lawsuit From Producer Alleging Ed Henry Rape
Fox News Wins Dismissal of Lawsuit From Producer Alleging Ed Henry Rape-April 2024
Apr 24, 2025 9:19 PM

Fox News will not have to face a lawsuit brought by a former associate producer who accused the network of ignoring the risk that shed be raped by former White House chief correspondent Ed Henry.

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams on Wednesday dismissed sexual assault, sex trafficking, revenge porn, harassment and retaliation claims against the network while allowing the majority of her case against Henry to proceed to trial.

The lawsuit, filed in 2020 in New York federal court, involved allegations that Eckhart endured years of sexual harassment from Henry that culminated in him violently raping her in a hotel room. The alleged incident followed Henry coercing her into a sexual relationship by threatening her career and him assaulting her at the networks New York offices. Fox News maintained that it couldnt have known Henry would assault Eckhart, who joined the network in 2013 as an administrative assistant and was promoted to associate producer, because it didnt learn of his alleged misconduct until years later. It denied allegations of retaliation, saying that she never complained about sexual harassment before she was fired. Henry has said his relationship with Eckhart was consensual.

In Wednesdays ruling, the court sided with the network that its management couldnt have failed to prevent Henry from assaulting Eckhart. There is no direct evidence that Fox News was aware of Henrys alleged harassment of Eckhart before it occurred, wrote Abrams, who noted that she acknowledged that she didnt tell anyone at the company about their relationship until after she was terminated in 2020.

On summary judgment, Eckhart argued that Fox News supervisors knew that Henry was harassing other women at the network. She pointed to the network directing him to receive sex rehabilitation treatment in 2016 after it was revealed that he was engaged in an extramarital affair.

Still, the court said that Fox News did not know about many of them until after Eckhart and Henrys final sexual encounter in 2017. It added, Because there is no evidence that Fox News learned about these affairs until April 2017 or later, no reasonable jury could find that they put it on notice that Henry would assault her.

Fox News wasnt on notice of Henrys alleged sexual misconduct until Eckhart first reported it to the network through her lawyers in 2020, the order stated. Once it learned of the allegations, the court said it investigated and terminated him six days later.

Henry and Eckhart advanced clashing portrayals of the two meeting for a drink in 2014 at a New York hotel. By Henrys telling, she accepted an invitation to his room, where they had consensual sex. By Eckharts telling, he locked the door to the room, threw her against a wall and had sex with her. She claimed she couldnt reject his sexual advance because she feared consequences to her career, citing another incident in 2017 in which she said she was violently raped and beaten.

Henry will face a trial scheduled to start in May over claims of assault, battery, sex trafficking and harassment.

Fox News didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

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