Dustin Hice, the man who accused CNN host Don Lemon of sexual assault, has sounded off in the wake of Chris Cuomo’s exit, slamming the network as a place “rife with predators and perverts.”
In 2019, the openly gay Dustin Hice filed a lawsuit against Don Lemon, accusing the CNN host of shoving his hands down his pants, rubbing his genitals, and then thrusting his fingers into Hice’s face. The alleged incident occurred at a bar on New York’s Long Island.
Hice reportedly said of the incident on the Fox show Waters’ World, “…And shoved his fingers up under my nose, pushed my head back, and asked me if I liked p—- or d—. I’m not going to say it. And I was disgusted, as you can assume, and I fled the bar.”
CNN has continued to stand behind Don Lemon, who has allegedly tried to settle with Hice on multiple occasions. In response to the network terminating Chris Cuomo for alleged sexual misconduct and for using CNN resources to aid his brother’s crisis team, Hice told Fox News Digital that the network protects predators.
“They’re a network rife with predators and perverts,” Hice said. “Lemon will have to testify under oath in the near future, but it’s good to see that there’s finally some accountability happening.”
“This is who they are. They’re a predator-protecting machine, they slander and smear victims with impunity,” Hice added.
Hice claimed that he turned down multiple settlement offers from Lemon and that CNN has actively worked with the anchor’s legal team to “grind me down.”
“They’ve tried to grind me down, they’ve attempted to intimidate witnesses in my case, they’ve released confidential information about me in an attempt to doxx me. They are complicit. This is who they are,” Hice said.
In a statement to Fox News, Lemon’s attorney, Caroline J. Polisi, called Hice’s claims “baseless.”
In response to Mr. Hice’s baseless allegations, I encourage people to review the public filings, which show that Mr. Hice’s claims have been steadily eroding when they have been exposed to the civil litigation process. Mr. Hice’s fanciful and salacious allegations against Mr. Lemon have collapsed of their own weight. Unlike Mr. Hice, Mr. Lemon has litigated, and will continue to litigate this case in the courtroom, not the press. We look forward to the approaching trial so he can finally put this case behind him.
Earlier last week, CNN suspended Chris Cuomo indefinitely after unearthed text messages revealed that he used his media sources to discredit his brother Andrew’s accusers, raising “serious concerns” about his ethical conduct. When Andrew Cuomo resigned as governor of New York earlier this year, Chris Cuomo initially told CNN that he only aided the disgraced politician as a fellow brother, not as an actual adviser:
When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly. But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second.
However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew. As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation.
Several days later, CNN announced that it had fired Chris Cuomo after “additional information” came to light about his conduct.