MOUNTING

Six More Women Come Forward Accusing Ailes of Harassment

Days after former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson sued him.

New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman revealed on Saturday that six additional women have come forward to accuse Fox News chief Roger Ailes of sexual harassment. “Ailes is clearly trying to keep these stories out of the press and the courts,” Sherman writes. Two of the six women spoke with Sherman on the record. Kellie Boyle, a 54-year-old former Republican National Committee field adviser, alleges that Ailes wanted her to perform oral sex on him. Another, former model Marsha Callahan, said that in the late 1960s Ailes asked her to lift her skirt and do different poses in his office. The new accusations come just days after former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson sued Ailes, accusing him and former co-host Steve Doocy of pervasive sexual harassment. The law firm representing Carlson says more than a dozen women have approached them to detail more alleged incidents of sexual harassment on the part of Ailes.

Later Saturday, Ailes’ attorney released a statement denying the women's allegations. “It has become obvious that Ms. Carlson and her lawyer are desperately attempting to litigate this in the press because they have no legal case to argue,” Barry Asen said. “The latest allegations, all 30 to 50 years old, are false.”

Lawyers for Carlson sent a statement to The Daily Beast in response to Asen, calling the women brave for coming forward. “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,” Nancy Erika Smith and Martin Hyman said. “Calling these women liars because they chose to speak out is despicable. Bullying and threats will not silence these brave women.”