Payne Accuser Sues Fox News

Charles Payne, Scottie Nell Hughes

Former Fox News commentator Scottie Nell Hughes says she was raped by longtime anchor Charles Payne, and then blacklisted by the network when she came forward with her allegations, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

According to The Washington Post, the 37-year-old Hughes says in the lawsuit that Payne “pressured” his way into her hotel room in 2013 and coerced her to have sexual intercourse with him, even as she rebuffed his attempts. She says in the suit that because she was “ashamed,” she did not immediately report the episode and was forced over the next two years to engage in a sexual relationship with Payne.

Hughes, who was a regular guest on Fox News and Fox Business from 2013 until 2016, said that when she ended the relationship with Payne, the network blacklisted her.

The network is strongly defending Payne, the host of Making Money on Fox Business, calling Hughes’ allegations against him a “publicity stunt.”

“We will vigorously defend this,” a Fox spokesperson said.

Jonathan Halpern, who is representing Payne, said in a statement that his client “vehemently denies any wrongdoing and will defend himself vigorously against this baseless claim.”

“We are confident that when the evidence is presented in this case, Mr. Payne will be fully vindicated and these outrageous accusations against him will be confirmed as completely false,” Halpern said.

The lawsuit, which names 21st Century Fox, Fox News and Payne as defendants, was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. It alleges gender motivated violence, gender discrimination, retaliation and defamation.

Payne was suspended from the network following publication of the article, as investigators looked into accusations against him. But he returned to air in September, after the internal investigation was completed, the Los Angeles Times reported.

In July 2017, Red Alert Politics obtained emails purportedly exchanged between Hughes and Payne, and verified by two separate sources, that may cast doubt on Hughes’ allegations. In one email to the Fox Business host, Hughes described a sexual fantasy of hers about what they would do together.

In the exchange on September 3, 2013, near the beginning of their relationship, Hughes sent Payne a graphic e-mail in which she discussed a recent sex dream she had involving the two of them in a swimming pool.

According to a statement from Payne, the two had a three-year relationship from 2013 to 2016. Hughes lawyers said to The Los Angeles Times that their client stayed in the relationship because she believed it would ultimately lead to a job at Fox News.

In a conversation with Red Alert Politics, one of Hughes’ former colleagues, who wished to remain anonymous, called her a “female predator.”

According to Kristina Lee Hall who worked with Hughes at the Tea Party News Network, Hughes was famous for sleeping with well-connected men who ran or controlled conservative PACs and websites. Lee asked us to keep the men’s names anonymous.