Bill O’Reilly sues Fox employee

Fox News Channel talk-show host Bill O’Reilly filed suit today against an attorney, his law firm and a Fox News employee for allegedly attempting to extort $60 million from him.

According to a statement from the network, the host of “The O’Reilly Factor” filed suit in Nassau County Supreme Court. Targeted are Benedict P. Morelli, a Manhattan attorney, his law firm, Morelli & Associates, and employee Andrea Mackris, who served as an associate producer of the show.

The complaint claims Morelli and Mackris threatened to sue O’Reilly and Fox News, claiming he engaged in offensive conversations with her that amounted to harassment.

Fox says Mackris worked for O’Reilly for four years before moving to CNN. After five months at the competing network, she returned to Fox. Her return, the complaint says, occurred after she asked O’Reilly for her previous position back. Mackris’ salary upon returning was $93,200.

The suit claims the pair tried to extort O’Reilly by threatening to file a lawsuit and demanding millions as a hush-money settlement. The complaint describes Morelli’s demand that O’Reilly pay the pair “nothing less than $60 million.” In addition, Morelli allegedly claimed he “wanted to punish not only O’Reilly, but Fox News.”

“Their demand is blackmail, pure and simple,” the complaint states.

“As a public figure, I have received many threats. But enough is enough … the threats stop now. I will not give in to extortion,” O’Reilly said in the statement.

The successful prime-time host is seeking unspecified damages, but says he would donate “100 percent” of the monetary damages to charity.

In addition to the extortion lawsuit, O’Reilly has also sued Morelli, his law firm and Mackris for intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful interference with contractual relations, alleging that their accusations threatened to impair his reputation and standing with his employers and the public.

According to the complaint, which has been secured by the Drudge Report, on Sept. 7, Mackris responded to a friend’s e-mail about how things were going now that she had returned to Fox. She wrote:

“To answer your question, things are: wonderful, amazing, fun, creative, invigorating, secure, well-managed, challenging, interesting, fun and surrounded by really good, fun people. I’m home and I’ll never leave again.”

On Sept. 29, according to the complaint, Fox received a letter from Morelli encouraging a settlement because a lawsuit “would be extremely damaging to both Fox’s reputation and the reputation of the individual involved.”