Fox News Guest Scottie Nell Hughes Says She Was Blacklisted After Rape Allegation

A political commentator who appeared on Fox News filed a lawsuit Monday accusing the network of blacklisting and discriminating against her after a Fox Business Network host allegedly raped her. In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, commentator Scottie Nell Hughes accused Fox Business anchor Charles Payne of raping her in a hotel room in 2013 and coercing her into sex on multiple occasions thereafter. The lawsuit names 21st Century Fox, Fox News, Payne, and two Fox News executive vice presidents as defendants. After Hughes brought the allegations to Fox News in June 2017, the network retaliated against her, she claims in her suit. Hughes alleges that Fox News kept her off air and leaked a story about her and Payne being in a romantic relationship. Fox Business suspended Payne in July while the network conducted an investigation into Hughes’ allegations and allowed Payne to return to the air in September.