Back in May, more than 30 women came forward to accuse Charlie Rose of sexual harassment. Within the same week, three former CBS employees filed a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against the former 60 Minutes host.
Four months later, Rose is making his first public move on the lawsuit by attempting to get the case dismissed with claims that the women are "exploiting the #MeToo Movement."
"Tacitly recognizing the weakness of their factual allegations, Plaintiffs seek to bolster their threadbare and conclusory claims by exploiting the #MeToo Movement and bootstrapping the accusations of sexual harassment made by third parties against Rose in articles published by The Washington Post," read Rose's motion to dismiss, obtained by Deadline. "Plaintiffs are not alleged to have had any knowledge of a single one of those accusations set forth in the articles. These hearsay accusations do not and cannot supply the missing link to the legally deficient claims."
The plaintiffs—Katherine Brooks Harris, Sydney McNeal, and Yuqing 'Chelsea' Wei—accused Rose of saying inappropriate comments about their sex life, making unwanted sexual advances, and touching their bodies without their consent. The allegations came in the midst of the Tarana Burke's #MeToo Movement where several women and men have come forward to share their experience with sexual misconduct in Hollywood and elsewhere. Rose isn't the only CBS employee to have allegations against him. In July, CBS chairman and CEO Les Moonves was accused of sexual misconduct by several women. CBS launched an internal investigation to look into Rose, Moonves, and their workplace culture, which was reportedly still ongoing as of Aug. 10.
