The parent company of Fox News has reportedly hired a law firm to investigate sexual harassment claims against “The O’Reilly Factor” host Bill O’Reilly.
“21st Century Fox investigates all complaints and we have asked the law firm Paul Weiss to continue assisting the company in these serious matters,” the company said in a statement given to Reuters.
That’s the same firm Fox hired last year to investigate sexual harassment claims against Roger Ailes, who was the network’s chairman at the time.
Ailes ultimately resigned after the company gave him a $40 million payout.
Both Ailes and O’Reilly have denied the allegations against them.
“In my more than 20 years at Fox News Channel, no one has ever filed a complaint about me with the Human Resources Department, even on the anonymous hotline,” O’Reilly said in a statement on his website.
That may have changed last week after former on-air guest Wendy Walsh went public with her allegations. Her attorney, Lisa Bloom, said on Twitter that they had called the Fox News hotline to file a complaint.
A spokesman for O’Reilly told The New York Times there’s “nothing special” about the network’s decision to engage a law firm, saying it was “already retained by the company to look into all hotline calls.”
The Times reported last week that the network and O’Reilly have paid out $13 million over the years to settle five claims of sexual harassment. Dozens of companies have pulled their ads from the show since the report.
CORRECTION: This article previously indicated that Fox News alone paid out $13 million to women who had accused O’Reilly of sexual harassment.
