Kimberly Guilfoyle, former Fox News employee, current campaign finance chair for Donald Trump, and the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr., has been accused of sexual harassment. On Wednesday, the New Yorker published an article that shed light on Guilfoyle’s departure from Fox News, which came in July 2018. According to the publication, the network reportedly forced her out after her assistant, whose identity was kept anonymous, accused her of sexual harassment. The network reportedly paid the former assistant $4 million to avoid going to trial.
The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, who penned the story, cited two “well-informed sources” for this piece. Mayer reported that Guilfoyle’s former assistant wrote a 42-page complaint regarding her employer’s alleged inappropriate behavior. Their complaint was never filed in court and is covered by a nondisclosure agreement because of the large financial settlement that the network paid. According to the New Yorker, this anonymous former assistant of Guilfoyle’s, who was hired in 2015, alleged that she was subject to inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature from her boss.
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“According to a dozen well-informed sources familiar with her complaints, the assistant alleged that Guilfoyle, her direct supervisor, subjected her frequently to degrading, abusive, and sexually inappropriate behavior; among other things, she said that she was frequently required to work at Guilfoyle’s New York apartment while the Fox host displayed herself naked, and was shown photographs of the genitalia of men with whom Guilfoyle had had sexual relations,” Mayer wrote. “The draft complaint also alleged that Guilfoyle spoke incessantly and luridly about her sex life, and on one occasion, demanded a massage of her bare thighs.”
Guilfoyle also allegedly attempted to buy her off to cover up the issue. In July 2016, Fox News hired the law firm Paul, Weiss to investigate internal sexual misconduct. One individual familiar with the assistant’s 42-page complaint said that during a phone call in August 2017, Guilfoyle allegedly tried to arrange a payment to the assistant if they agreed to lie to the law firm. The assistant denied the alleged offer of money, which prompted Guilfoyle to allegedly warn her that if she did speak candidly about what she knew, that she would expose parts of the assistant’s private life that she was aware of.
Guilfoyle declined to be interviewed for the New Yorker piece. She did provide a statement, which read, “In my 30-year career working for the SF District Attorney’s Office, the LA District Attorney’s Office, in media and in politics, I have never engaged in any workplace misconduct of any kind. During my career, I have served as a mentor to countless women, with many of whom I remain exceptionally close to this day.”