http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=atCdjFIuoj6Y&refer=homeNov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Publisher Judith Regan, fired last year, sued her former employer News Corp. and its HarperCollins unit, claiming she is the victim of a ``deliberate smear campaign'' to protect Presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani.
Regan asked for at least $100 million in damages in her suit filed today in state Supreme Court in New York. She claims News Corp. tried to destroy her reputation because she has damaging information about former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. The information would be harmful to ex-New York Mayor Giuliani and his presidential campaign, she said.
``The smear campaign was necessary to advance News Corp.'s political agenda, which has long centered on protecting Rudy Giuliani's presidential ambitions,'' Regan said in the complaint.
Regan, who also published Kerik's autobiography ``The Lost Son,'' was fired in December 2006 after she backed O.J. Simpson's book, ``If I Did It.'' In the book, Simpson described how he could have killed his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.
News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch canceled publication of the Simpson book and a Fox broadcast special starring Simpson in November 2006, saying it was an ``ill-considered project.