CBS reached settlement with employee over Don Hewitt sex assault

CBS paid more than $5million in hush money to an employee who accused late 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt of repeated sexual assault and destroying her career, a bombshell new report has revealed.

The New York Times reported Thursday that the settlement was reached between CBS and the unidentified woman in the 1990s in order to keep her quiet for 20 years. 

The revelation comes after CEO Les Moonves made his exit in September after being accused of sexual misconduct.

This week has been especially tumultuous for Moonves, as a new report alleges he received oral sex from multiple employees and even had one of them ‘on-call’ to perform whenever he demanded. He has denied the claims.

CBS hired two law firms to investigate Moonves following the allegations from a total of 12 women who claimed he either forced himself on them or was sexually inappropriate. 

60 Minutes producer Jeff Fager was also terminated in September for inappropriate conduct.

Fager sent a text message to reporter Jericka Duncan, warning her about the coverage of the sexual misconduct allegations against him, just three days before his ousting.

The draft report said: ‘We note that the misconduct of individual “60 Minutes” employees, including Mr. Fager and Mr. Rosen, should not have been tolerated, but we find that it was not as severe as the media accounts or as severe as the sexual misconduct that occurred during the Don Hewitt era at ’60 Minutes,'” according to the Times.

The Times reported that the Hewitt settlement was first set at $450,000 but was changed numerous times. 

Hewitt, who created the 60 Minutes program in 1968, died in August 2009 after losing his battle to cancer.