After Kimberly Guilfoyle mysteriously left Fox Information in the summertime of 2018, she discovered herself vehemently denying information stories that mentioned her departure was attributable to allegations of sexually inappropriate conduct.
However her former boss, Fox Information Chairman Rupert Murdoch, has apparently confirmed that he wished her gone due to the allegations, which have been detailed in a 2020 report in The New Yorker. Murdoch’s issues about Guifoyle, a former prime marketing campaign aide for Trump, have been revealed in a trove of texts and emails that have been lately leaked in Dominion Voting Methods’ lawsuit towards Fox Information.
Murdoch mentioned in an e-mail, despatched within the wake of the 2020 election, that he had “insisted” Fox Information hearth Guilfoyle “for inappropriate conduct.” The 91-year-old govt additionally ripped into his once-popular Fox Information host in different methods, in accordance with the e-mail, which was shared by Semafor media reporter Max Tani.
Whereas Murdoch’s word mistakenly referred to as Guilfoyle “Kimberly Strassel,” an opinion author for the Wall Avenue Journal, he clearly was referring to Guilfoyle when he wrote about her affiliation with Newsmax. The rival information community was recognized for pushing even more durable than Fox Information to advertise debunked conspiracy theories that Donald Trump’s loss to Joe Biden was attributable to widespread election fraud.
“Newsmax not good folks!” Rupert wrote within the e-mail. “Being suggested by Don jr’s girlfriend Kimberley Strassel who I insisted we hearth for inappropriate conduct. Not certainly one of our folks will be a part of her. Newsmax determined for cash. Scoured the world, thus far with out luck.”
greatest revelation from the dominion lawsuit could also be that rupert murdoch's e-mail tone is much less logan roy, extra the colleague dropping a hyperlink in slack saying "simply wished to flag!" pic.twitter.com/IygOVHRbLg
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) March 8, 2023
It’s clear that Murdoch is speaking about Guilfoyle, given his reference to “Don Jr.’s girlfriend” and her being “fired”; Strassel nonetheless writes for the Wall Avenue Journal. Guilfoyle and Donald Trump Jr. have been courting since 2018 and have become a well-liked duo in MAGA circles, campaigning for Trump’s re-election in 2020 and serving to him to push his lies that the election was stolen. Each additionally spoke at Trump’s Jan. 6 rally, which preceded the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol to cease congress from certifying the outcomes of the election.
After her departure from Fox, Guilfoyle turned a contributor to Newsmax. Together with One American Information Community, Newsmax aggressively pushed false claims of voter fraud. In its lawsuit, Dominion alleges that Fox Information hosts and executives harbored doubts about such claims however promoted them anyway as a result of they apprehensive about shedding viewers to Newsmax or OAN.
The concept that Murdoch wished Guilfoyle gone provides weight to the New Yorker report, printed a month earlier than the 2020 election. The report steered that Guilfoyle needed to go away Fox Information, the place she had labored because the mid-2000s, due to sexual harassment allegations made by a former assistant. Earlier than the New Yorker report, the favored rationalization for Guilfoyle’s departure from Fox was that she wished to keep away from conflicts of curiosity posed by her new romance with Trump Jr.
Reporter Jane Mayer detailed allegations in a 42-page draft criticism, which mentioned that Guilfoyle confirmed lewd images of male genitalia to colleagues, recurrently mentioned sexual issues at work, urged the assistant “to undergo a Fox worker’s calls for for sexual favors,” and uncovered herself to the assistant whereas asking for a critique of her bare physique.
The story moreover described efforts by Guilfoyle to cowl up the allegations, citing well-informed sources who mentioned the community paid the previous assistant as much as $4 million to keep away from a trial.
In her response to the New Yorker report, Guilfoyle referred to her time as a prosecutor in San Francisco within the early 2000s, earlier than and through her marriage to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was then mayor of San Francisco.
“In my 30-year profession working for the SF District Lawyer’s Workplace, the LA District Lawyer’s Workplace, in media and in politics, I've by no means engaged in any office misconduct of any type,” she mentioned in an announcement.
In a latest interview with CNN’s Axe Recordsdata podcast, Newsom opened up for the primary time about his political variations with Guilfoyle, his spouse from 2001 to 2006. He mentioned she was a “completely different particular person” again once they have been married and that she ended up turning into a right-wing persona as a result of “she fell prey” to the tradition at Fox Information after she started working there in 2006.