Trump, Asked About Accusations Against Bill O’Reilly, Calls Him a ‘Good Person’ -
By JIM RUTENBERGAPRIL 5, 2017
The embattled Fox News host Bill O’Reilly got powerful backing on Wednesday from none
other than the president of the United States, who called him “a good person.”
Mr. Trump praised Fox News and Mr. O’Reilly, just days after reported
that the host had been involved in five settlements with women who said he had harassed them.
Mr. Trump frequently granted interviews to Mr. O’Reilly during his political rise, including a period when Mr. Trump was
fighting with the network, with particularly harsh verbal attacks on Mr. O’Reilly’s former colleague, Megyn Kelly.
And Ms. Deng and Ms. Trump were so close that the Murdochs made Ms. Trump a trustee of their children’s fortune.
Mr. Trump even played a role in the sexual harassment scandal
that engulfed Fox News last summer that led to the forced departure of its founder, Roger E. Ailes, from the network.
Mr. Trump helped advise Mr. Ailes as he navigated the scandal and even helped Mr. Ailes find a lawyer in New Jersey, where the first lawsuit
that precipitated the scandal was filed, as Vanity Fair first reported.
But perhaps most important, Mr. Trump now oversees the Justice Department as the United States attorney’s office
in Manhattan is investigating the way Fox News accounted for financial settlements involving harassment claims.