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Guilfoyle, now a Trump campaign surrogate, faced accusations of improper behavior from her former Fox News subordinate.
One of the Trump campaign's most visible surrogates and fundraisers, former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, was pushed out of the network two years ago after her female assistant accused her of sexual harassment, according to a report in The New Yorker.
Guilfoyle claimed she left the right-leaning news network so she could work for Trump's campaign -- she is now the girlfriend of Donald Trump, Jr. -- but The New Yorker's Jane Mayer says she was pushed out amid the harassment allegations. The unnamed young woman filed a 42-page list of complaints against Guilfoyle, which led to the staffer eventually being awarded a nearly $4 million payout, according to Mayer.
Guilfoyle denied her former assistant's claims, saying she never engaged in improper workplace behavior and was frequently a mentor to women.
Mayer's reporting uncovered the following accusations of impropriety by Guilfoyle's former assistant: "According to a dozen well-informed sources familiar with her complaints, the assistant alleged that Guilfoyle, her direct supervisor, subjected her frequently to degrading, abusive, and sexually inappropriate behavior; among other things, she said that she was frequently required to work at Guilfoyle's New York apartment while the Fox host displayed herself naked, and was shown photographs of the genitalia of men with whom Guilfoyle had had sexual relations. The draft complaint also alleged that Guilfoyle spoke incessantly and luridly about her sex life, and on one occasion demanded a massage of her bare thighs; other times, she said, Guilfoyle told her to submit to a Fox employee's demands for sexual favors, encouraged her to sleep with wealthy and powerful men, asked her to critique her naked body, demanded that she share a room with her on business trips, required her to sleep over at her apartment, and exposed herself to her, making her feel deeply uncomfortable."
The assistant also claimed that Guilfoyle engaged in an attempted cover-up, promising the young woman hush money and other perks if she stayed silent about her experiences at work. By 2016, a private law firm was speaking to Fox News staffers about the culture of harassment there, following a lawsuit from Fox personality Gretchen Carlson against network boss Roger Ailes. Numerous Fox staffers would be pushed out for their abusive behavior, including Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, and Eric Bolling, Guilfoyle's co-star on The Five. Guilfoyle's accuser also worked for Bolling, and accused him of harassing her as well.
Guilfoyle also publicly defended Ailes, pressured other female Fox staffers to do the same, and allegedly worked to smear Carlson's reputation. Guilfoyle's assistant claimed that her former boss insinuated she would denigrate her and expose her private affairs if she didn't lie to the lawyers investigating harassment. Mayer, in reporting her story, says Guilfoyle's defenders reached out to her to smear the assistant. Instead, Mayer corroborated much of the assistant's complaints.
Guilfoyle, the ex-wife of California governor Gavin Newsom, is now criss-crossing the country as part of the Trump campaign's "Four More Tour." She was given a high-profile speaking slot at the Republican National Convention where she infamously shouted, "The best is yet to come!"
