Given what we already know about Justin Wells, it’s not hard to believe he may have sexually assaulted a former Fox staffer.
You may recall that Tucker Carlson, the ex-Fox News host who promoted violence against the LGBTQ+ community and their allies on the air, had an out gay man literally running his show. That man was Justin Wells. As Michelangelo Signorile, who broke the story about Wells' sexuality, put it, "It’s beyond horrific to think a gay man has helped to shape and widely disseminate a message of hate against LGBTQ people."
In her lawsuit against Fox News and Tucker Carlson, former Tucker Carlson Tonight producer Abby Grossberg also sued Wells. She alleged he subjected her to sexist and antisemitic harassment that was part of the “toxic workplace culture” she said she endured. Fox settled the case for $12 million in June.
Wells was fired in April, at the same time as Carlson, for reasons we still do not know. Wells is now the top producer of Carlson’s Twitter videos, as per The Washington Post.
More from WaPo:
In the lawsuit filed in New York State Court, Andrew Delancey claims that Justin Wells repeatedly grabbed his genitals at Wells’s apartment shortly after Delancey was hired [by Fox News] in 2008, and that superiors dissuaded him from filing complaints.
…
Less than a month after Delancey started at Fox, Wells invited him to meet other Fox colleagues at a gay bar, according to the lawsuit. Wells allegedly insisted that the pair first drink at Wells’s apartment, where Delancey claims Wells “easily overpowered” him, forcing him onto his bed and grabbing his genitals and causing what Delancey describes as “severe pain,” even as Delancey yelled out “no.”
“Out of nowhere, Wells aggressively pushed Mr. Delancey onto his bed where he violently forced his tongue into Mr. Delancey’s mouth,” the complaint states.
Delancey convinced Wells that they needed to go meet their co-workers, according to the lawsuit, but Wells again allegedly groped him in a stairwell against his consent.
Carlson is standing by his man, The Daily Beast reports:
“As a general matter, if you believe you’ve been the victim of a sex crime, you have a moral obligation to alert police, so it doesn’t happen to someone else,” Carlson added in a statement provided by Wells’ attorneys. “If you wait 15 years to cash in with a civil suit, no one should take you seriously. I certainly don’t.”
Of course, Delancey’s accusations are just allegations at this point. The Post notes that through his lawyer, Wells has denied the allegations and plans to contest them “vigorously.”
I have no way of knowing where the truth lies. But it would not be a shock if Delancey’s accusations bear out.
You can watch Tucker Carlson call Wells a “diabolical genius” below, in a clip in which the two of them praise Fox News to the hilt for giving them the freedom to do and say whatever they want. It’s from the April 15, 2022 Tucker Carlson Tonight, via Media Matters. That was almost one year to the day before Carlson and Wells were fired.