Yes, encouraging someone to lie to the Federal authorities is a crime, punishable with fines and or imprisonment, and that seems to be exactly what Roger Aisles – the senior executive of News Corp and Chairman of Fox News – did, according to a Ms. Judith Regan.
According to a report from the New York Times, Aisles, the man responsible for the direction of the so-called “news network,” gave the unsolicited advise to Ms. Regan in an effort to protect Rudolph Giuliani, a then 2008 Republican presidential candidate. Regan – the Times reports – had an affair with Bernard Kerik, Giuliani’s New York police commissioner, and the man being considered by the Feds to head up the job of Homeland Security Secretary. Aisles advised Regan to lie or withhold information about the relationship from the feds, and according to Ms. Regan, the conversation was recorded.
The revelation was made in court in another case involving Ms. Regan. Brian C. Kerr, a former lawyer of Ms. Regan describes the evidence he found in an affidavit. The Times Reports;
But Brian C. Kerr, one of Ms. Regan’s former lawyers, describes in an affidavit the physical evidence he reviewed as “including a tape recording of a conversation between her and Roger Ailes, which is alluded to throughout the complaint” that Mr. Kerr and another lawyer, Seth Redniss, drafted for Ms. Regan. That complaint said News Corporation executives “were well aware that Regan had a personal relationship with Kerik.”
“In fact,” the complaint said, “a senior executive in the News Corporation organization told Regan that he believed she had information about Kerik that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani’s presidential campaign. This executive advised Regan to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik.”
Mr. Redniss, in his affidavit, referred to “a recorded telephone call between Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News (a News Corp. company) and Regan, in which Mr. Ailes discussed with Regan her responses to questions regarding her personal relationship with Bernard Kerik.”
Would I be wrong to assume that Roger Aisles will deny these claims and the voice on the recording? No, of course not. As a matter of fact, it is expected that Mr. Aisles will deny it all, because after all, he’s the one responsible for the content of Fox News. There will obviously be more to this story in the near future.
Read the New York Times report here.
