FNC's Eric Bolling Files $50M Defamation Lawsuit

Eric Bolling

Fox News host Eric Bolling filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit Wednesday against a freelance journalist who reported that Bolling had sent lewd texts to female colleagues at the network, according to The Washington Post.

Yashar Ali wrote in HuffPost last week that Bolling, co-host of the weekday program “The Fox News Specialists,” had texted an unsolicited photo of male genitalia to at least two co-workers at Fox Business and one at Fox News. Citing a dozen anonymous sources, Ali reported that Bolling had sent the messages several years ago on separate occasions and that four people other than the recipients had seen the photo.

Fox said in a statement on Saturday that it had suspended Bolling from the network “pending the results of an investigation, which is currently underway.”

Just received a summons. Eric Bolling is suing me for defamation - $50 million in damages. I stand by my reporting + will protect my sources

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) August 9, 2017

It's important to note that Bolling's summons does not include HuffPost - he is coming after me personally. I'm a big boy...but very telling https://t.co/nvludsIV87

— Yashar Ali (@yashar) August 9, 2017

In a summons filed Wednesday in New York state court, Bolling accused Ali of trying to damage his reputation through “highly reckless publication of actionable false and misleading statements about the plaintiff’s conduct and character.”

“As a result of the defendant’s actions, the plaintiff has been substantially harmed,” the summons read.