Disgraced former Fox News anchor Ed Henry’s motion to dismiss allegations that he violated New York’s so-called “revenge porn” statute against his sexual assault accuser was rejected by a federal judge this week.
U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams also ruled that ex-Fox associate producer Jennifer Eckhart's accusation of sex trafficking against Henry could continue, though the judge did toss out several counts of retaliation against Henry for filing salacious and “intimate” photos of Eckhart on the public docket.
Weeks after Henry was fired from Fox News in July 2020, following a complaint of “willful sexual misconduct in the workplace,” Eckhart filed a brutal lawsuit alleging the veteran reporter raped her and “performed sadistic acts on her without her consent that left her injured, bruised and battered with bloody wrists.” Henry vehemently denied all claims.
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Henry was later accused of “slut-shaming” Eckhart when his legal team added 15 explicit photos to a court filing that sought to dismiss the ex-Fox employee’s lawsuit, prompting Eckhart to file the “revenge porn” count and additional retaliation charges. Henry’s legal team, meanwhile, has maintained that filing the images was a “reasonable defensive measure” to combat Eckhart’s “inflammatory” allegations.
Last September, Abrams advanced Eckhart’s lawsuit against both Henry and Fox News, though Abrams did dismiss the sex trafficking, federal hostile work environment, and “aiding and abetting” counts against the network at that time. Eckhart’s claims of retaliation and hostile work environment under New York state law against Fox News survived.
“We remain committed to defending against the baseless allegations against Fox outlined in Jennifer Eckhart’s claims,” Fox News Media wrote in a statement last fall. “As we have previously stated, upon first learning of Ms. Eckhart’s allegations against Ed Henry, Fox News Media immediately commenced a thorough independent investigation and within six days dismissed Mr. Henry for cause. We look forward to proving through the discovery process that FOX News Media takes harassment allegations seriously and acted appropriately.”
While the judge said in her ruling this week that Eckhart’s “revenge porn” allegation would move forward, Abrams let Henry know that he could still potentially use the images as part of his defense once the case goes to trial. She did inform Henry’s attorneys, however, that they should seek the court’s permission before submitting the photos as evidence.
“There is no doubt that the factual allegations in the complaint are inflammatory, and the Court recognizes that Henry vehemently denies them,” she wrote. “He certainly has the right to defend himself publicly — and do so zealously. But the Court has not denied him of that right. It has not, for instance, imposed a gag order, or held that the photographs may not properly be considered at the appropriate time.”
In her complaint, Eckhart accused Henry of having “groomed, psychologically manipulated and coerced” her into a “sex slave” relationship. She additionally claimed that when she didn’t consensually agree to sex, the married host “sexually assaulted her on office property, and raped her at a hotel where Fox News frequently lodged its visiting employees.”
While the “revenge porn” and sex trafficking charges against Henry will continue, Abrams agreed to dismiss some of the retaliation counts since at the time Henry publicized the photos he was no longer an employee of Fox News.
“Retaliation claims under both statutes are confined to the employment context, or at the very least, to situations where the parties had an ‘ongoing economic relationship,’” the judge wrote. “At the time of the filing of the photographs, there was no employment relationship — nor any ‘ongoing economic relationship’ —whatsoever between Henry and Eckhart.”
Attorneys for Eckhart and Henry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Henry, who now works for the Steve Bannon-affiliated fringe-right channel Real America’s Voice, hasn’t had much luck in the courts of late.
This past spring, his defamation lawsuit against NPR, CNN, and several journalists at those outlets was voluntarily dismissed “with prejudice”—meaning he can’t refile the case at all. Henry had claimed CNN and NPR reporters’ “longstanding grudges against Fox News and/or individuals associated with the company” had clouded their reporting on his termination.
Furthermore, his defamation lawsuit against Fox News was tossed out just last week, as a judge determined that Henry had failed to prove that any of his ex-employer’s allegations of sexual misconduct that led to his firing were false.
