At least a dozen of Mark Halperin's former colleagues have reportedly come forward with sexual harassment allegations.

In a new allegation that emerged Friday, a woman claimed that Halperin masturbated behind his desk while staring at her.

Halperin denied some of the claims and issued a qualified apology, but admitted he felt "profound guilt and responsibility."



At least a dozen of journalist Mark Halperin's former colleagues have come forward with startling sexual harassment allegations, including one accuser who alleged Halperin masturbated behind his desk while staring at her, according to a CNN report Friday.

Halperin, who was dismissed from his roles at NBC and MSNBC this week after the sexual harassment claims first surfaced, was accused of the lewd acts from women who worked with him at ABC News.

One of the four new claims reported on Friday by CNN's Oliver Darcy included one accuser who worked as an ABC News desk assistant in the late 1990s. The accuser, who CNN reported was her early 20s at the time, asked to meet with Halperin for career advice and went into his office after 10 p.m. While the two were talking, she told CNN, Halperin began masturbating behind his wooden desk while he stared at her.

"I sat in a chair across from him," she said to CNN. "He was behind a wooden desk so I couldn't see him from the waist down. As we had our conversation about my career he was masturbating. There was no question about it."

"I pretended like I didn't know what was going on and we talked a bit more and then he abruptly wrapped up the conversation," she continued.

Her account, like others, was corroborated by friends who said they were told of the allegations years ago.

Another woman alleged that Halperin had violently thrown her against the window of a restaurant before coming "at me with his open mouth."

"He put both hands on my arms and threw me against the window of the restaurant hard," she said to CNN. "So my head banged against the window hard, in a way I thought people inside were going to think something terrible had happened to me."

"This was rough, and hard, and violent," she continued. "And not in a seductive way — in a way that telegraphs some anger and meanness."

Although the woman said she avoided his attempt to kiss her, she said that about 10 minutes later, Halperin gave her a call.

"I was really hoping he would be calling to apologize," she told CNN. "And he said something to the effect of, 'You are never going to get a job. You're never going to be hired in politics or media. Why would anyone ever hire you?'"

"And that's when I broke down and started crying," she continued.

CNN reported that Halperin denied some of the latest allegations, saying he had never masturbated in front of anyone or physically assaulted anyone. He released a statement on Friday to "apologize sincerely to the women [he] mistreated."

"Many of the accounts conveyed by journalists working on stories about me or that I have read after publication have not been particularly detailed (and many were anonymous) making it difficult for me to address certain specifics," Halperin's statement said. "But make no mistake: I fully acknowledge and apologize for conduct that was often aggressive and crude."

"Some of the allegations that have been made against me are not true," he continued. "But I realize that is a small point in the scheme of things. Again, I bear responsibility for my outrageous conduct at ABC News."

Read Halperin's full statement: