A U.S. District Court judge ruled against a former Fox News producer’s claim that the network ignored sexually inappropriate behavior by ex-anchor Ed Henry.
Jennifer Eckhart, who worked as an associate producer on Fox News Media’s Fox Business Network from 2013 to 2020, sued Henry for sexual assault. Fox News was named in the suit, as Eckhart claimed the network was aware that Henry was sexually harassing women and failed to take action.
Judge Ronnie Abrams disagreed.
“Fox News can … be held liable for Henry’s actions only if its management or supervisors knew or should have known about that purported misconduct yet failed to prevent Henry from harming Eckhart,” Abrams said in her ruling. “On this record, the Court agrees that no reasonable jury could make that finding.”
The court also rejected Eckhart’s assertion that Fox News fired her because she complained about sexual harassment. Eckhart was terminated in 2020 after several poor performance reviews, according to court filings.
Eckhart’s suit said Henry, now 53, manipulated and groomed her when she was 24 by abusing his power over her and her career. The suit alleged that he asked her to be his “sex slave” and threatened punishment and retaliation if Eckhart did not comply with his sexual demands.
According to evidence submitted in the case, Eckhart and Henry began a sexual relationship in 2014 when he was a White House correspondent for Fox News. She said their first sexual encounter, which occurred in Henry’s room at a hotel, was not consensual. Henry said that it was.
Eckhart — who said she met with Henry at the hotel because she believed he could help her career — told the court she did not say “no” or fight him off during the encounter because she “was afraid of what he would do if she protested.”
She met Henry again when he was in New York in September 2015. Evidence showed that he asked Eckhart to send her undergarments to him in an envelope. She complied, fearing “professional consequences” if she refused, she said.
Eckhart then met Henry in a temporary office where she performed oral sex on him, according to court documents. Again, Henry said it was consensual while Eckhart said she complied because she feared retaliation.
(Fox News testimony noted that the company was never aware of Eckhart’s relationship with Henry until she filed her complaint. The two worked in different divisions at the company, and Henry never supervised Eckhart.)
Over the months that followed, the two exchanged sexually explicit messages. They met again in 2017 when Henry was in New York to co-host “Fox & Friends.” Eckhart alleged she was raped on that occasion, while Henry described the encounter as “rough sex.”
Eckhart said Fox News was aware that Henry’s behavior with women was problematic because he was suspended for four months in 2016 for having an extramarital affair with a Las Vegas stripper. The company recommended that he enter a rehabilitation program for sex addiction, which he did, according to evidence in the case.
When Henry returned, he was given a promotion to weekend co-host of “Fox & Friends.”
Although Fox News executives were aware Henry was having extramarital affairs, the company had not received any harassment complaints against him before Eckhart filed one on June 25, 2020, shortly after she was fired. Henry was dismissed six days later after an investigation by outside counsel.
Henry was co-anchor of the three-hour newscast “America’s Newsroom” at the time of his firing. He has since joined the smaller right-wing network Newsmax, which has hired former Fox News journalists and hosts who were jettisoned over sexual harassment allegations.
“We are pleased with the court’s decision, which speaks for itself,” Fox News said in a statement released through a representative. “Discovery in this matter confirmed that Fox News was not aware of their relationship or of Ms. Eckhart’s allegations until after she left the company. The only people who know what happened between Mr. Henry and Ms. Eckhart are the two of them.”
Eckhart’s sexual assualt case against Henry is moving forward. She plans to appeal the ruling on removing Fox News from the case.
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