New York (CNN Business) A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax's lawsuit against CBS, which alleged the network defamed him when it aired interviews in 2019 with two women who accused him of sexual assault.

Judge Anthony J. Trenga ruled in favor of CBS, writing in his ruling that Fairfax had "not plausibly alleged that CBS engaged in actionable defamation or published the challenged broadcasts with 'actual malice' or that CBS intentionally inflicted emotional distress."

In April 2019, "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King aired interviews with Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson. Both women alleged that Fairfax assaulted them years ago, in 2004 and 2000 respectively.

Fairfax has denied their claims and said the encounters he had with the two women were consensual. Hours after CBS began promoting King's interviews, Fairfax's office issued a statement saying that Fairfax had been "steadfast from the start in saying that serious, fair, and impartial investigation and examination of the facts would demonstrate that these allegations are false and that he engaged in no wrongdoing whatsoever."

The allegations against Fairfax surfaced as Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam was embroiled in his own scandal over a decades-old blackface photo that resurfaced. Prior to the sexual assault allegations, it was thought that Fairfax had a good chance of assuming the governorship if Northam were to step down.

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