Sean Hannity’s Accuser Denies That She Made Sexual Harassment Allegations, Tamara Holder Comes To His Defense

Sean Hannity was faced with sexual allegations yesterday by Debbie Schlussel; today she denies that she accused him of sexual harassment at all. Were her words simply misunderstood?

Schlussel is standing by her description of what happened with Sean Hannity; however, she says that by legal definition this can’t be considered sexual harassment.

She told LawNewz the following.

“I would never accuse him of that. Sexual harassment has a special meaning under the law, and I would never accuse him of that.”

In her radio interview with Pat Conroy, she said that she was treated horribly by Hannity and the then-executive producer of the Hannity program, Bill Shine, and that Hannity “tried to get me to go back to the hotel before and after the show.” She has come forth and said that she did not mean Hannity invited her to his hotel room, but just the hotel. She also added that she did go on Sean’s show one more time but after that was banned by Fox News.

Schlussel added that she did not consider herself to be sexually harassed by Sean Hannity – just that she didn’t like him and thought he was “weird and creepy.”

After the report regarding Sean Hannity and the sexual allegations he was facing were published, the Inquisitr received a statement from Fox News on behalf of Hannity.

He began by saying this.

“LET ME BE CLEAR THE COMMENTS ABOUT ME ON A RADIO SHOW THIS WEEK by this individual ARE 100% false and a complete fabrication.”

He continued to say that the person who accused him of sexual harassment had lied about him in the past and had harassed him. He said she has made previous attempts to “slander, smear and besmirch my reputation,” and that she had done this with other people in the past, too.

Hannity continued to say that he will be taking legal action. Sean Hannity believes that actions such as these allegations are specifically an attempt to “silence those with conservative views.”

It is true that Schlussel has made accusations towards Sean Hannity in the past. In 2010, she claimed that the war veteran charity, “Freedom Alliance” was a scam and was skimming donations. This charity was supported by Sean Hannity. The founder and president of the “Freedom Alliance” charity, Thomas Kilgannon, denied such allegations and said that Hannity had received nothing from the organization other than their gratitude.

Since the podcast in which Schlussel spoke about Hannity was made public, someone else unexpected has come forth to defend Hannity – Tamara Holder. Tamara Holder is one of the women that settled with 21st Century Fox over sexual harassment claims involving another Fox News staff, Francisco Cortes. Cortes was later fired by Fox News and Holder settled for more than $2.5 million.

Many of Tamara Holder’s appearances on Fox News were on Sean’s show. Holder said she considered Hannity a mentor and that he was “probably one of the best men I’ve known in my life.” She says that he never suggested anything that could be construed as sexual harassment.

Schlussel did not comment on her other allegations towards Fox News in general. She did not deny that the unnamed and now deceased “guest host” from the Hannity show had hit on her and called her up in the middle of the night. She did not revoke her statements regarding things that are going on behind the scenes at Fox News. She also did not retract her statement about Hannity’s former executive producer that quit and the suggestion that there was something “not above board” going on.

What do you think about what Debbie Schlussel has said about Sean Hannity and the backtracking that she has done? Are they genuine? Did she simply misspeak? Or is there more to it than that?

[Featured Image by Paul Zimmerman/Getty Images]