ABC News settled a legal battle with former “Good Morning America” producer Kristyn Crawford, who sued the network for allegedly turning a blind eye to claims of misconduct and harassment by her boss, ex-“GMA” executive producer Michael Corn.
ABC News filed a stipulation of dismissal with prejudice on Friday in New York state court, ending the 26-month fight, The Wall Street Journal first reported.
Corn, who left ABC News in April 2021, has consistently denied Crawford’s accusations, calling them “fabrications.” The suit has been dismissed for both ABC News and Corn, who is now the president of Nexstar Media-owned cable news channel NewsNation.
Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Crawford accused Corn of sexual harassment during a 2015 business trip to cover the Academy Awards in Los Angeles.
In her August 2021 lawsuit, she claimed Corn forcibly touched and kissed Crawford during an Uber ride back to their hotel after a party the night before the awards, and that during the alleged incident, he claimed he could advance her career.
Following the alleged incident, Crawford said Corn retaliated against her. She also alleged that he created a hostile work environment and stalled her professional career.
Crawford claimed that ABC executives learned of her allegations against Corn in 2017, but only launched an investigation into his conduct after she and another ex-ABC News producer Jill McClain connected with one another in January 2021 and filed formal complaints to the company a month later. ABC News has pushed back on the claim that it had knowledge of these allegations as far back as 2017.
McClain, an assistant to anchor Diane Sawyer, claimed Corn sexually assaulted her in 2010 during a red-eye flight, and a year later in a London hotel room. McClain wasn’t a plaintiff in Crawford’s lawsuit, but she publicly supported it. Corn has denied McClain’s allegations. She left the Disney-owned network in 2013.
In June 2022, Crawford’s suit was initially dismissed by New York County Civil Court Judge Barbara Jaffe, who cited a three-year statute of limitations on the claims.
Crawford appealed the decision last April, and the court overturned Judge Jaffe’s ruling, saying she “has sufficiently alleged facts comprising ‘a single continuing pattern of unlawful conduct,” and that the lawsuit could move forward.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
