Ailes Accused of Judge Shopping Amid Report Fox Near to Removing News Chief
Gretchen Carlson's legal team on Monday accused Roger Ailes' attorneys of judge shopping, declaring it opposes efforts by the powerful Fox News chairman to move the former anchor's sexual harassment lawsuit to a federal court in New York.
Ailes' efforts to defend himself from Carlson's allegations comes amid a report that the 76-year-old executive, a longtime power broker within 21st Century Fox (FOXA) - Get Report and the Republican Party, may be removed in the coming days from his position atop the cable TV network.
According to New York magazine, 21st Century Fox Co-Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his sons Lachlan and James, co-chairman and CEO, respectively, have decided to part ways with Ailes following initial findings of an internal investigation into Fox News' workplace environment conducted by the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
In response to the New York story, Fox News in a statement said its own review stemming from Carlson's allegation is ongoing. "This matter is not yet resolved and the review is not concluded," the network said.
As for the case itself, Carlson's lawyers asked a state court in New Jersey to reject a request by Ailes' attorneys to move the case to New York federal court. Carlson's lawyers want her allegations of sexual harassment against Ailes, who also holds the position of Fox News chief executive, to be heard in New Jersey, near where her attorneys claims he maintains his primary residency.
But Ailes' lawyers on Friday asked that the case be moved to a federal court in Manhattan even they ultimately have made clear that they would like the entire dispute to be handled through an arbiter chosen by the American Arbitration Association.
Such a forum would likely limit Carlson's ability to further make public her allegations that the Fox News chairman "sabotaged her career because she refused his sexual advances and complained about severe and pervasive sexual harassment."
"There's a lot of law out there that you can't judge shop, that you can't be in two courts at once," Carlson's lead attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, said. "They wanted the New Jersey court to rule, and then they changed their mind and asked that the case be heard in New York. And that's illegal."
Carlson filed her sexual harassment claim on July 6 in a New Jersey state court, alleging that when Carlson met with Ailes in fall 2015 to discuss what she describes as a pervasive culture of sexual harassment, he said, "I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago and then you'd be good and better and I'd be good and better," adding that "sometimes problems are easier to solve" that way.
The allegations threaten to unseat a man who has helped to shape the modern conservative movement as well as Republican Party policy. Ailes, a former adviser to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, created Fox News with Murdoch in 1996, eschewing conventional structures of network news for a format that emphasized commentary often mirroring his own political opinions.
Since being filed, Carlson's lawsuit has been mired in a tug-of-war over Ailes' primary residence. Carlson's attorneys say the Fox News chief lives in Cresskill, N.J., in Bergen County, a 45-minute commute to midtown Manhattan. Ailes' attorneys counter that he lives in Garrison, N.Y., a leafy village north of New York City along the Hudson River in Putnam County, a roughly 90-minute commute to Manhattan.
In an interview, Smith said that Ailes has owned the sprawling compound in Cresskill for about 16 years and only uses his Garrison home as a weekend residence. She added that Ailes also owns a New York City apartment.
"We certainly had a reasonable basis to believe that his residence is in Cresskill," Smith said, citing press reports that Ailes had frequently called Cresskill police about security at his home. "It's not unusual to sue someone where they live."
But the question of residence aside, Ailes attorney Susan Estrich maintains that Carlson's suit violated the terms of the employment contract she held with Fox News, where she work for 11 years up until last month. That contract, Estrich argued in a court filing, requires that employment disputes, such as those she allegedly has with Ailes, must be settled through an arbitration hearing not in a court of law.
"Gretchen Carlson's attorney has led a concerted smear campaign to prejudice the rights of Roger Ailes in this case," Estrich, a Los Angeles partner in the firm of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, said in a statement released by Fox News. "Her attempt to game the system so as to avoid the arbitration clause for her client's baseless allegations is contrary to law and unsupported by the facts."
Fox News contends that Carlson's attorneys are the ones judge shopping.
"If anything, Gretchen Carlson's lawyer was attempting to judge shop by having this heard in her comfort zone of state court in Bergen County, where neither Roger nor Carlson reside," a Fox News representative said in an e-mailed statement. "She has tried to rig this case to deny Mr. Ailes the agreed-upon forum, which is arbitration."
Both sides await a ruling from Superior Court in New Jersey about where the case will be heard, and ultimately whether the dispute will go to arbitration or a jury.
Carlson doesn't seek a specific dollar amount of damages, though she does make clear she will pursue compensation for "damage to career path, damage to reputation and pain and suffering," as well as "punitive damages" and "attorneys' fees and costs of suit."
Ailes maintains Carlson's accusations are false and that the lawsuit is a retaliation for Fox News' decision not to renew her contract. Ailes alleges Carlson was let go due to "disappointingly low ratings."
Concerning the ongoing jurisdiction dispute, Smith said Ailes' legal team is trying to prevent Carlson from using her legal right to pursue her allegations in a court of law.
"He ultimately doesn't want it in any court whatsoever," Smith said. "His overarching goal is to bring this into a secret arbitration proceeding, and he's forum-shopping or judge-shopping in order to find the best place that he thinks he'll get an order that Gretchen Carlson doesn't get a jury trial."
Fox shares on Monday afternoon were up 1 cent to $28.05.