Exclusive: New Email Suggests More Complex Story Behind Harold Ford Jr. Harassment Allegations

At first blush, Harold Ford, Jr. seems to be just another bold-faced name in an ever-increasing list of high-profile men publicly forced out of a position of power due to highly credible or confessed allegations of misconduct. But Mediaite has obtained emails that suggest the allegations of misconduct behind his apparent dismissal from his job at Morgan Stanley, are far less definitive than initially reported.

Yesterday, Huffington Post contributor Yashar Ali broke the story that a female reporter who worked with Ford on a story said she was interviewed by Morgan Stanley’s HR department to probe possible misconduct. The heart of his report reads:

The woman alleged that Ford engaged in harassment, intimidation, and forcibly grabbed her one evening in Manhattan, leading her to seek aid from a building security guard. The incident took place several years ago when Ford and the woman were supposed to be meeting for professional reasons. Ford continued to contact her after the encounter until she wrote an email asking him to cease contact.

The email, which was reviewed by HuffPost, shows that the woman emailed Ford after he repeatedly asked her to drinks. She asked him not to contact her anymore, citing his inappropriate conduct the evening where he forcibly grabbed and harassed her. Ford replied to the email by apologizing and agreeing not to contact her.

Mediaite has reviewed both emails referenced in the Ali report but has also seen an additional email exchange between Ford and the woman, the tone and content of which varies dramatically from the email cited in the Ali report. The emails from the Huffington Post report were sent two weeks after the evening in question. The email we’ve obtained appears to have been sent almost immediately after the February 11, 2014 dinner.

It appears the evening in question centered around a meeting between a financial reporter, Ford Jr., and a fellow colleague — which led to a dinner at a well-known midtown restaurant. After buying the reporter’s dinner, Ford Jr. and the reporter in question shared a cab downtown (where Ford, Jr. lived at the time) and the reporter continued on to Brooklyn.

That evening, after the reporter ostensibly arrived home safely, she sent an appreciative email to Ford, Jr. thanking him.  “had fun tonight!” The email reads. “thanks for inviting me out, and for the meal, and my ride home. hope you got back safe and sound?”

There is no question that the tone of the email she sent two weeks later was stern and indicates that she believed Ford was repeatedly trying to improperly cross from professional to personal, and that she now felt some of his “conduct was inappropriate” at the February 11 dinner, but that is very different from what she appears to have said immediately after the dinner in question.

When Mediaite reached out to the reporter in question for comment, she directed us to counsel who declined to comment.

A spokesman for Ford told Mediaite that Ford met her for breakfast in midtown the week before regarding her story about Morgan Stanley, then met her the night of February 11 for a drink to discuss the story, after which she joined him and a small group of his friends at the dinner. Her story ran that night. Ford says he then emailed/texted to follow up at the direction of Morgan Stanley because she covered the firm and they thought he could be helpful as an ongoing source for her. It was those follow-ups that she apparently believed were an effort to “veer outside the normal boundaries” in the days after the dinner. He responded to her February 25 rebuke by emailing back “I apologize for whatever I may have said or what was said. And my overtures are strictly professional. Promise you.”

The Huffington Post report cites two individuals with whom “the woman confided in about the incident,” and claims “one woman heard from Ford’s accuser the night of the incident and described her as ‘distraught, shocked, and frightened,’ and said that she was concerned about any career ramifications should she report the incident.”

In a statement provided earlier, Ford, Jr. fiercely denied the claim, saying:

This simply did not happen. I have never forcibly grabbed any woman or man in my life. Having drinks and dinner for work is part of my job, and all of my outreach to the news reporter making these false allegations was professional and at the direction of my firm for business purposes. I support and have tremendous respect for the brave women now speaking out in this important national dialogue. False claims like this undermine the real silence breakers. I will now be bringing legal action against the reporter who has made these false claims about me as well as Morgan Stanley for improper termination.

The former Democratic congressman-turned-financial director and regular Morning Joe guest was reportedly been fired from Morgan Stanley due to these allegations. Though John Singer, employment counsel for Ford claims “Morgan Stanley has still not told Harold directly of his termination, and unlike every other circumstance I’ve been in the company has refused to provide me with a reason. This all demonstrates how this was a matter of convenience during a hyper-sensitive time and not based on real facts.”

According to someone close to Ford, Jr., the first he learned there about the allegation he’d pushed anyone was when the Huffington Post article ran this week. Morgan Stanley never mentioned anything about any specific allegations, just that there were media questions being raised about the dinner, which it seems was enough for HR to terminate his employment.