Fired Fox host O'Reilly busted for floating smear story on black woman he sexually harassed

According to a report at LawNewz, fired Fox News host Bill O'Reilly attempted to salvage his reputation by pitching a story that smeared a black Fox News employee who was central to his firing over sexual harassment accusations.

In an interview with attorney Lisa Bloom who represents Perquita Burgess -- dubbed "Hot Chocolate" by O'Reilly around the Fox offices when he was still employed --  the former host reached out to the Washington Post with a dubious story involving Burgess and domestic abuse.

"The Washington Post contacted me a few weeks ago, and the reporter there told me Mr. O’Reilly’s team approached him with new information his investigators had uncovered about Ms. Burgess,” Bloom explained in a statement.

“That reporter reviewed the matter extensively, including talking to me and reviewing a witness statement I provided that showed the domestic violence incident was based on a misunderstanding and that the incident did not result in any legal charges or conviction as far as we could tell," she added. "The Post ultimately passed on the story, presumably because it didn’t meet their editorial standards.”

Despite the Washington Post passing, O'Reilly found a friendlier publisher in conservative pro-Trump Newsmax which ran with the story on Sunday morning- with O'Reilly tweeting a link to it Monday morning.

According LawNewz, they reached out to O'Reilly's attorney but received no response to Bloom's accusation.