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NEW YORK – Fox News chairman Roger Ailes told a former publishing executive to lie to federal investigators who vetted now-disgraced ex-New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik for a Cabinet post in 2004, according to court documents cited in a news report Friday.
The New York Times reported that former lawyers for Judith Regan — a one-time publishing powerhouse who worked for a unit of Fox parent News Corp. before a nasty public split — said in sworn statements that Ailes and Regan had a taped conversation about what she'd say about Kerik. Regan had previously said a senior News Corp. executive advised her to lie and withhold information about the now-imprisoned Kerik.
But News Corp. said Regan had provided the company with a letter saying Ailes "did not intend to influence her with respect to a government investigation." In 2008, News Corp. and Regan settled a $100 million lawsuit in which she accused unnamed executives at the New York-based media empire of urging her to dissemble in the federal background probe into Kerik, with whom she'd had an affair.
"The matter is closed," the company said in a statement.
Regan declined to comment through a current lawyer, Robert E. Brown.
The episode created a stir in media and political circles from New York to Washington, and it has at least tangentially swept up a roster of prominent — and sometimes infamous — figures.
While at News Corp.-owned HarperCollins Publishers, Regan made a name for herself by bringing out such provocative best-sellers as Jose Canseco's "Juiced" and Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star." But her career foundered after an outcry over her efforts to release "If I Did It," O.J. Simpson's hypothetical "confession" to the slayings of wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Her 2006 firing came about a month after News Corp. canceled the project.
Regan fought back by suing her former employers, saying they had tried to destroy her reputation and making the eye-catching claims that she was told "to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik" while he was being vetted to head the federal Department of Homeland Security.
The New York Times reported that former lawyers for Judith Regan — a one-time publishing powerhouse who worked for a unit of Fox parent News Corp. before a nasty public split — said in sworn statements that Ailes and Regan had a taped conversation about what she'd say about Kerik. Regan had previously said a senior News Corp. executive advised her to lie and withhold information about the now-imprisoned Kerik.
But News Corp. said Regan had provided the company with a letter saying Ailes "did not intend to influence her with respect to a government investigation." In 2008, News Corp. and Regan settled a $100 million lawsuit in which she accused unnamed executives at the New York-based media empire of urging her to dissemble in the federal background probe into Kerik, with whom she'd had an affair.
"The matter is closed," the company said in a statement.
Regan declined to comment through a current lawyer, Robert E. Brown.
The episode created a stir in media and political circles from New York to Washington, and it has at least tangentially swept up a roster of prominent — and sometimes infamous — figures.
While at News Corp.-owned HarperCollins Publishers, Regan made a name for herself by bringing out such provocative best-sellers as Jose Canseco's "Juiced" and Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star." But her career foundered after an outcry over her efforts to release "If I Did It," O.J. Simpson's hypothetical "confession" to the slayings of wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Her 2006 firing came about a month after News Corp. canceled the project.
Regan fought back by suing her former employers, saying they had tried to destroy her reputation and making the eye-catching claims that she was told "to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik" while he was being vetted to head the federal Department of Homeland Security.
