Fox News commentator Hughes alleges network retaliated after her rape accusation

Former Fox News guest commentator Scottie Nell Hughes has sued Fox News and Fox Business Network host Charles Payne charging that Payne raped her and that the network retaliated against her when she came forward with the allegation.

Hughes filed her suit Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York charging 21st Century Fox, Fox News and Payne, alleging defamation, gender-motivated violence, retaliation, and discrimination.

Payne, the host of the network's show Making Money, recently returned to the air after Fox suspended him in July while the company investigated sexual harassment allegations. Payne acknowledged having what he called a “romantic relationship” with a married female political analyst who frequently appeared on Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel.

Hughes, a native of Hendersonville, Tenn., is a well-known Trump surrogate and Tennessee conservative who is considering running for Congress now that current Rep. Diane Black, is running for governor in 2018.

Payne’s attorney, Jonathan Halpern, a partner at the Chicago law firm Foley & Lardner LLP, said Payne “vehemently denies any wrongdoing and will defend himself vigorously against this baseless complaint.  We are confident that when the evidence is presented in this case,  Mr. Payne will be fully vindicated and these outrageous accusations against him will be confirmed as completely false.”

The suit is the latest of several complaints filed against Fox News since the 2016 resignation of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, who died in May 2017. Two months later, Fox settled a sexual harassment suit filed against Ailes by former Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson.

In April, Fox dismissed host Bill O'Reilly, after an internal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment.

Most recently, Fox News Channel host Eric Bolling left the network and it canceled his show. Bolling had been suspended by Fox following a report in The Huffington Post that he had sent three of his current and former co-workers an unsolicited text message showing male genitalia.

In her suit, Hughes alleges she was sexually assaulted and raped by Payne in 2013. Subsequently, she was asked to appear on Fox shows more frequently and Payne coerced her into a sexual relationship "in exchange for career opportunities and benefits," she alleges in the suit. "Payne used his position of power to pressure Ms. Hughes into submission," the suit says.

When Hughes tried to terminate the relationship, she alleges, Payne became "enraged and physically violent."

Hughes did cut off contact with Payne and saw her Fox appearances drop from four to five weekly to five times over a 10-month period, according to the complaint.

Earlier this year, Hughes' agent was told that Hughes was not getting booked for shows because she "“had an affair with someone at Fox and we were told not to book her,” she says in the suit. Hughes had also learned that she was taken out of consideration for positions in the Trump administration because "Fox had labeled her as 'not bookable'," the suit says.

Hughes said Fox News Co-President Bill Shine had been responsible for that treatment after Payne's wife contacted Shine, she alleges in the suit.

Hughes then contacted the Paul Weiss law firm, which was conducting an internal investigation into sexual harassment allegations. After that, she received a call from the National Enquirer seeking comment about a "breaking story about Ms. Hughes and Payne," the suit says.

Her name did not appear in that story, but did in a subsequent story by the Huffington Post. "Just as the Fox PR machine had hoped, Payne’s statement successfully led public opinion to believe that he and Ms. Hughes were simply consenting adults in an ordinary affair," she says in the suit.

“The latest publicity stunt of a lawsuit filed by Doug Wigdor has absolutely no merit and is downright shameful," Fox News said in a statement. "We will vigorously defend this. It’s worth noting that Doug is Ms. Hughes’ third representative in the last six months to raise some variation of these claims which concern events from four years ago, since it apparently took some time to find someone willing to file this bogus case.” 

The Nashville Tennessean contributed to this story.

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Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.