Roger Ailes' Lawyer Not Ruling Out Possible Fox News Departure Negotiations
— -- In an interview with ABC News today, a lawyer for Roger Ailes did not rule out that negotiations for the Fox News chief’s possible departure are ongoing, but said “there is no deal” and that Ailes “is at work,” overseeing Fox News' coverage of the Republican National Convention.
Ailes is facing a sexual harassment lawsuit from former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson.
Attorney Susan Estrich said there were “lots of conversations” taking place, and that there are “lots of different people doing a lot of talking”..
Earlier today, a purported severance document was posted to Twitter by journalist Matt Drudge before being swiftly deleted. Estrich said that she believed it was a “draft term sheet” that “got floated around somehow ... in the jumble of PDFs.” She added that there are “lots of proposals and ideas going around.”
Estrich said that neither she nor Ailes likely saw the document that Drudge posted.
The lawyer added that she does not know exactly where it came from, and that she told Drudge to remove it from the social network because there was no agreement.
A spokesman for 21st Century Fox issued a statement earlier today, saying: “Roger is at work. The review is ongoing. And the only agreement that is in place is his existing employment agreement.”
Also on Tuesday, New York magazine published a story citing unnamed sources that claimed that another Fox News host, Megyn Kelly, had “told investigators that Ailes made unwanted sexual advances towards her about [10] years ago.”
In the interview, Estrich, the lawyer, reaffirmed a written statement that she previously supplied, saying Ailes “never sexually harassed Megyn Kelly.” In the statement, she said that Ailes “has spent much of the last decade promoting and helping her to achieve the stardom she earned.”
The story about Kelly comes a few weeks after Carlson, a mainstay of the network for 11 years who left Fox News on June 23, filed a lawsuit against Ailes. In it, she alleges that Ailes had “sabotaged” her career after she “refused his sexual advances,” and that her job was terminated in retaliation for rebuffing him and complaining to him about sexual harassment.
In a video posted to Twitter Tuesday, Carlson said she wants “to support all women who have been victims of sexual harassment” and said that “it’s so important that we will not be silenced.”
Fox News and Ailes have denied Carlson's allegations.
"Gretchen Carlson’s allegations are false. This is a retaliatory suit for the network's decision not to renew her contract, which was due to the fact that her disappointingly low ratings were dragging down the afternoon lineup. When Fox News did not commence any negotiations to renew her contract, Ms. Carlson became aware that her career with the network was likely over and conveniently began to pursue a lawsuit.”
ABC News' Rebecca Jarvis contributed to this report.
