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Bill O’Reilly might be out at Fox News, but the network’s legal problems are far from over. Seven more employees are expected to join the racial-discrimination lawsuit filed against Fox News in late March. According to a source for the Daily Intelligencer, the plaintiffs’ lawyers will allege that the director of accounting at Fox, Tammy Efinger, did nothing when the former comptroller, Judy Slater, hurtled racist insults at employees. (Slater has already been fired.)



In a letter to the network’s lawyers obtained by New York, the attorneys state: “Not once did Ms. Efinger step in or attempt to interfere with Ms. Slater’s outrageous conduct.” The letter adds, instead, “Ms. Efinger chose to laugh or giggle following Ms. Slater’s vitriol.

The letter also revealed new details about disturbing behavior in Fox’s accounting department.

According to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Slater demanded that black employees hold “arm wrestling matches’” with white female employees in her office, just down the hall from Ailes’s office on the 2nd floor of Fox headquarters. “Forcing a black woman employee to ‘fight’ for the amusement and pleasure of her white superiors is horrifying. This highly offensive and humiliating act is reminiscent of Jim Crow era battle royals,” the letter says, referring to the practice of paying black men to fight blindfolded at carnivals for white spectators’ entertainment. The lawyers argue that Efinger bragged about wanting to “fight” a black employee.

Jeanne Christensen, a lawyer for the employees, commented, “There will be more complaints forthcoming in the next few days.” Fox News had no comment.