Rudy Giuliani's "Kerik problem" just continues to grow and fester. Book publisher Judith Regan, who carried on a longtime affair with Rudy's close confident, the indicted Bernard Kerik, has claimed in a lawsuit filed today that a senior executive at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. encouraged her to mislead federal investigators about her relationship with Kerik during his bid to become homeland security secretary in late 2004. As the New York Times reports, Regan also claims that the News Corporation has "long sought to promote Mr. Giuliani’s ambitions." No surprise for those of us on dkos, but still this is another serious allegation to pile on the growing heap of questions about the company that Rudy chooses to keep, and about his too-cozy relationshop with Rupert.
Regan's allegations come in a $100 million lawsuit she has filed in civil court. Regan was fired by the News Corporation after the O.J. Simpson book fiasco, and she is asking for damages for an alleged campaign to smear and discredit her by HarperCollins and its parent company, the News Corporation.
The cozy relationship between Murdoch and Giuliani is no secret. When he was mayor of New York City, Rudy threw many favors Rupert's way, and now it's time for Murdoch to pay back the favor. That's how it works with Rudy's mafia. As American Progress explains:
The Columbia Journalism Review reported that during New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's first term "News Corp. received a $20.7 million tax break for the mid-Manhattan office building that houses the Post, Fox News Channel, TV Guide and other operations. During Giuliani's 1997 reelection campaign, News Corp. was also angling for hefty city tax breaks and other incentives to set up a new printing plant in New York City. Most dramatically, Giuliani jumped in to aggressively champion News Corp. when it battled Time Warner over a slot for the Fox News Channel on Time Warner's local cable system.
American Progress also notes that Murdoch's New York Post had a "perfect four-year streak" of not one critical editorial of the Giuliani adminstration during Rudy's first four years in office, and this fawning coverage has of course continued on Fox News with Rudy's current presidential bid.
But according to Regan, the News Corporation has gone beyond mere biased coverage of Giuliani. It has put the pressure on any employee who might say something negative about Rudy, and has urged them to break the law if necessary. Regan's complaint notes that "a senior executive in the News Corporation organization told Regan that he believed she had information about Kerik that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani’s presidential campaign. This executive advised Regan to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik."
Regan claims that the News Corporation took such drastic actions because it "wanted to protect the presidential aspirations" of Giuliani. One of her lawyers claims that Regan "possesses evidence to support her claim that she was advised (by News Corp. officials) to lie to federal investigators who were vetting Mr. Kerik."
Regan is clearly not slinking away quietly. Um Rudy, I have a few more questions for you.
FIRST UPDATE:
Smoking Gun has Regan's lawsuit, all 75 pages of it (in PDF). H/T noweasels.
SECOND UPDATE:
In perusing the lawsuit, I came across a few more scintillating details under the section titled "Defendants' Intentional Efforts to Ruin Regan's Character and Credibility Furthered Their Political Agenda":
- Regan claims that HarperCollins and News Corp. sought to diminish her "character and reputation" so that "her credibility would be destroyed if she ever spoke out about Kerik. Defendants believed that they would be protecting Giuliani if they could
preemptively discredit Regan in any way possible in the event the
damaging information was ever disclosed."
- The lawsuit focuses on a cell phone incident in which Regan's cell phone was apparently stolen at the Fox News Channel and Kerik sent NYPD detectives out to investigate. Regan claims that the defendants tried to spin the story that it was "Regan - not Kerik - who caused the detectives to knock on the doors of Fox News employees and that it was Regan - not Kerik - who was "out of control." The lawsuit further claims that in the March 2007 issue of Vanity Fair, writer Michael Wolff had been "given talking points by News Corp. to trash Regan" and wrote in the article that Regan "was able to have NYPD detectives sent out to the homes of the production-crew memebers she suspected of having snatched it." The lawsuit goes on to point out that shortly after the article, Wolff made a "nearly seven figure deal" to write Murdoch's authorized biography.
- Regan claims in the lawsuit that the defendants "initiated a covert smear campaign" against her to
"kill her in the crib."
Wow. This is wild stuff.