Roger Ailes has hired a top-gun libel lawyer – whose clients include Hulk Hogan and Melania Trump – to wrangle with New York magazine over its exposés on Ailes' sexual harassment scandal and tarnished tenure at Fox News, the Financial Times (FT) reported.
Attorney Charles Harder wrote the magazine about stories by Gabriel Sherman, who has covered Ailes for years, chronicling Ailes' troubled downfall. Sherman also wrote a book about Ailes.
The threat to Sherman comes after a devastating cover story this week in New York in which Sherman detailed how Fox News executives obtained the phone records of Ailes' perceived enemies through the use of a private investigator.
The watchdog group Media Matters for America called for an immediate criminal investigation of Ailes and any company employee who obtained private phone records of journalists who criticized the network
Ailes left Fox News in July following an internal investigation triggered by ex-Fox News host Gretchen Carlson's sex harassment lawsuit.
Since then, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and other women also have come forward, including former network guest booker Laurie Luhn. Luhn collected a severance package worth $3.15 million in 2011 – first reported by Sherman – after she accused Ailes of sexually harassing her for 20 years.
It is not known if Ailes will sue Sherman or New York magazine, FT reported. Aides could not be reached for comment, Harder did not return requests for comment and Sherman has not commented.
FT reports New York magazine commented Sherman's stories have been "very carefully reported."
Harder won $140 million in damages for Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, after Gawker posted a sex video. He was hired by Donald Trump's wife after the Daily Mail published, and then retracted, a story reporting allegations the modeling agency she worked for in the early 1990s also served as an escort service.
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