REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
Former Fox News anchor Laurie Dhue on Thursday filed a defamation lawsuit against her former colleague Bill O’Reilly, accusing him of conducting a “smear campaign” against her, according to The Hill. Dhue claimed that O’Reilly “made false allegations about her” after a New York Times report revealed she was paid $1 million in a settlement over sexual-harassment allegations against O’Reilly and then-Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. The suit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court, also claimed that O’Reilly “ensured that these statements were distributed widely, attempting to sacrifice the character reputation” of the long-time Fox anchor. Dhue worked at Fox News from 2000 to 2008, and was a weekly guest on The O’Reilly Factor–O’Reilly’s primetime show on Fox that ended early last year when he was fired.