Report: Les Moonves May Sue CBS Over Leaks

Les Moonves

Media mogul Les Moonves is threatening to sue CBS over recent leaks of lurid details about his alleged sexual misconduct, The NYPost is reporting.

In what’s expected to amount to a breach of contract suit, Moonves’ lawyers are preparing to allege that leaks to the NYTimes this week about CBS’ pending investigation into Moonves broke a confidentiality agreement and sullied the exec’s reputation, sources close to Moonves said.

At stake is a $120 million exit package for Moonves, which could get slashed or wiped out entirely if the board finds that CBS’ ex-chairman and chief executive violated the company’s harassment policies.

“He was about to get nothing,” an insider said of Moonves, citing the report’s damaging findings, including that the media exec had oral sex with at least four employees, as well as one network employee “on call” to pleasure him, according to a Wednesday report by the Times.

The 59-page draft report also claimed that Moonves destroyed evidence of his misdeeds and evaded investigators, and that CBS employees and some former board members covered up Moonves’ behavior.

With those confidential findings now public, lawyers for Moonves, who has said he believed the sexual encounters were consensual, believe they’ve now got a foot in the door to “challenge the process legally,” the source said.