Dianne Brandi, once part of Roger Ailes’ inner circle, is taking voluntary leave from Fox News, it was reported today. It’s not clear what precipitated the decision.

Brandi, executive vice president of business and legal affairs, was much more powerful than her title would suggest. From The New York Times:

Inside Fox News, Ms. Brandi’s title of executive vice president of legal and business affairs belies the amount of power she wields over programming and personnel decisions. She is heavily involved in contract negotiations with on-air personalities and has been known to intimidate top talent and producers with her no-nonsense deal making style.

From her days as a lieutenant to Mr. Ailes, Ms. Brandi has played a role in decisions big and small at all levels of the network, sometimes including which guests are booked onto certain shows.

According to multiple lawsuits, that activity extended into handling internal complaints of harassment.

As Gabriel Sherman noted, Brandi had previously seemed untouchable despite allegations of complicity in covering up complaints of sexual harassment. But Brandi’s immunity seems to be over. Sherman wrote:

As Ailes’s longtime in-house lawyer, Brandi had an inside view of many of Ailes’s alleged abuses of power. “She knows everything,” one Fox anchor said. Insiders theorize that her extensive roadmap of where the bodies are buried may have protected her at Fox. But lately that protection has been weakening. Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are continuing to investigate Brandi’s conduct as part of their probe of Fox News, sources briefed on the matter said. Prosecutors are said to be looking at how Brandi negotiated multiple sexual-harassment settlements for Ailes, including the $3.15 million payout to Fox’s former head of booking Laurie Luhn; and how Brandi reportedly hired private investigators to obtain journalists’ phone records (Brandi denied this at the time). More recently, Brandi has been named in numerous racial and gender discrimination lawsuits filed by Fox employees. (A spokesperson for the Southern District declined to comment.)

It’s not clear why Brandi has suddenly decided to leave and why now. According to Sherman, some speculate that she is being pushed out to facilitate the Murdoch’s bid for Sky, which has been stalled by British regulators over concerns about Fox News. Others say she made her decision on her own and is unhappy at Fox.

I wonder if another lawsuit or bombshell exposé is about to drop.

For some Friday evening laughs, enjoy Funny or Die’s “Fox News Sexual Harassment Training Video,” below:

Image of News Corporation building via ABC News screen grab.