Gretchen Carlson’s lawyers fired back at Fox News boss Roger Ailes for releasing a statement on Saturday saying new sexual harassment allegations against him from six more women are all “false.”
“Yesterday in a statement to the press (‘litigating in the press’), an Ailes spokesperson challenged Gretchen’s lawyers to come forward with other victims of Ailes’ sexual harassment to speak on the record. Today, six brave women voluntarily spoke out to New York Magazine detailing their traumatic sexual harassment by Ailes,” attorneys Nancy Erika Smith and Martin Hyman said in a statement to TheWrap. “We are hearing from others.”
They have not yet responded to TheWrap’s request for further comment if that last line is a reference to the six women who spoke to New York Magazine, or if Carlson’s legal team has heard different allegations from additional women.
The attorneys also fired back at Ailes’ outside legal counsel, Barry Asen, who accused the legal team of “desperately attempting to litigate this in the press because they have no legal case to argue.”
“The latest allegations, all 30 to 50 years old, are false,” Asen said in a statement on Saturday.
Carlson’s legal team fired back: “Barry Asen, Ailes’ lawyer, accused Gretchen of ‘litigating in the press’ and, without any investigation, within 3 hours, claimed that the allegations are false. How does he know that?”
The statement concluded: “Women have the right to speak out — whether Ailes likes it or not — even about trauma they endured years ago and that haunts them to this day. Calling these women liars because they chose to speak out is despicable. Bullying and threats will not silence these brave women.”