Fox news chief ID’d as subject of allegation
NEW YORK — It was an incendiary allegation: After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed a senior executive at its parent company, News Corp., had encouraged her to lie to federal investigators two years before.
The investigators had been vetting Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner. Kerik had been nominated to be homeland security secretary and had had an affair with Regan.
The executive, according to Regan, aimed to keep the affair quiet and protect the presidential aspirations of former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Kerik’s mentor.
Regan never revealed the identity of the executive, even as her allegation made headlines and she brought a wrongful termination suit against HarperCollins and News Corp.
But now, affidavits filed in a separate lawsuit reveal his identity: Roger E. Ailes, chairman of Fox News.
Documents say Regan taped the call from Ailes in which Ailes discussed her relationship with Kerik. It is unclear whether the tape played a role in News Corp.’s decision to move quickly to settle Regan’s lawsuit, paying her $10.75 million two months after she sued in 2007.
A News Corp. spokeswoman did not deny Ailes was the executive on the recording.
But Teri Everett said News Corp. had a letter from Regan “stating that Mr. Ailes did not intend to influence her with respect to a government investigation.’’
“The matter is closed,’’ Everett said.
Everett declined to release the letter, and Regan’s lawyer, Robert E. Brown, said News Corp.’s description of the letter did not represent Regan’s complete statement.
The new documents emerged as part of a 2008 lawsuit in which Regan’s former lawyers in the News Corp. case accused her of firing them on the eve of the settlement to avoid paying them a 25 percent contingency fee.
The parties agreed to keep the records confidential, but it does not appear that a court order sealing them was ever sent to the court clerk, and the records were placed in the public file.
