In October, Bill O’Reilly spoke out about the sexual harassment allegations that got him fired from Fox News by announcing that he’s “mad at God” for not giving him enough “protection.” Unfortunately, God isn’t done testing O’Reilly just yet, as Variety is reporting that he has summoned two former Fox News employees to join an existing defamation lawsuit against O’Reilly. Earlier this month, former Fox News producer Rachel Witlieb Bernstein sued O’Reilly over his many public denials of the harassment allegations, suggesting that he’s defaming her by continuing to say she lied about being harassed even though he gave her a settlement.
Now, two more women who worked with O’Reilly at Fox News—Andrea Mackris and Rebecca Gomez Diamond—have joined the defamation suit. Both Mackris and Diamond also accepted settlements from O’Reilly after they accused him of harassment, and they also say he’s defaming them by continuing to say that they either lied or were just trying to get money. Another issue is that Fox News previously stated that nobody had utilized the company’s harassment hotline, which these three accusers reject on the grounds that they received their settlements in the wake of complaints they had filed.
O’Reilly’s lawyer, Fredric Newman, intends to fight all of this, claiming the women have “drawn more attention to themselves” on their own than O’Reilly did with his public comments. So far, God has not issued a statement on why he’s doing this to O’Reilly.