A former Fox Business associate producer who accused ex-Fox News anchor Ed Henry of sexual assault was arrested on suspicion of battery in Florida. 

Jennifer Eckhart, aged 34, was photographed with a pout in her mugshot following her arrest in Palm Beach County around 1pm on Wednesday. She was subsequently released without needing to post bail. 

According to an arrest affidavit acquired by the Daily Mail, Eckhart is accused of assaulting her boyfriend, identified in the document as Thomas Beasley, after he informed her of his intention to break up. 

Beasley told cops that after he dumped her Eckhart, ‘began knocking items over in his office, struck him, screamed, and became combative.’ 

Beasley presented the police with footage purportedly showing the incident, where Eckhart is allegedly seen “shouting at Beasley, hitting him, tearing his shirt while grabbing it, and insisting he erase the footage.” 

The arrest comes a month after Eckhart settled a rape lawsuit against Henry, five years after she accused him of sexually assaulting her when they worked at Fox News. 

Henry, who denied Eckhart’s allegations and said they were in a ‘kinky’ relationship, was fired weeks before she filed her lawsuit in 2020.

Eckhart alleged in the filings that she was ‘violently raped while helpless and restrained in metal handcuffs.’ 

Jennifer Eckhart, a former Fox News reporter who accused ex-anchor Ed Henry of rape, was arrested on suspicion of battery in Florida 

Eckhart, 34, filed a 2020 lawsuit that accused Henry, 53, of handcuffing, beating and raping her in 2017 after a campaign of ‘grooming’. She settled the lawsuit a month ago 

Former Fox News anchor Ed Henry, 53, was fired after Eckhart’s allegations were made public, but he denied the allegations and was never criminally charged, insisting they had a consensual, albeit kinky, affair 

In March, a federal judge threw out part of the lawsuit that named Fox News as a defendant, dismissing Eckhart’s claims that the network failed to take any action against Henry’s alleged rape. 

Eckhart also claimed that she was fired from Fox News in retaliation for her complaints about the alleged attack, and accused Henry of sharing explicit ‘revenge porn’ images of her. 

Following her settlement with Henry in June, Eckhart spoke of the mental toll that the case had on her, saying it had been an ‘exhaustive, retraumatizing, five-year legal battle with incredible challenges that at times I almost felt was unable to bear’.

Eckhart started her own podcast REINVENTED, where she speaks about ‘generational trauma’ to ‘give a voice to the voiceless’ in the wake of the process.

She also runs a non-profit named The Reinvented Project, which helps trauma survivors through animal-assisted therapy, per People.  

Henry, who now works at Newsmax after he was fired by Fox News, was never charged criminally over Eckhart’s allegations. 

She was fired in June 2020, two weeks before she made allegations against Henry through an attorney, claiming his ‘improper conduct’ began around 2014 and culminated in an alleged rape in February 2017.

Henry was subsequently fired after Eckhart came forward with her allegations, and Fox News announced his departure ‘based on investigative findings’ about his alleged ‘willful sexual misconduct.’

When she settled her lawsuit against Henry in June, Eckhart spoke of the mental toll that the case had on her, saying it had been an ‘exhaustive, retraumatizing, five-year legal battle with incredible challenges that at times I almost felt was unable to bear’  

In a statement through his attorney after settling the lawsuit, Henry’s representative said: ‘This matter has been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, and the parties are moving on with their lives.’ 

Eckhart said a civil trail was approaching before the settlement was agreed. The details of the settlement were not reported on at the time. 

In her lawsuit against Henry, Eckhart alleged that the anchor handcuffed, beat and raped her. 

But Henry insisted that they were in a consensual relationship at the time of the alleged attacks, and said that they were in a kinky affair that involved actions such as handcuffing. 

Daily Mail previously revealed the two were engaging in raunchy exchanges. 

Eckhart was fired as an executive producer at Fox News in June 2020, two weeks before she made allegations against Henry through an attorney, claiming his ‘improper conduct’ began around 2014 and culminated in the alleged rape in February 2017

This included text messages just days after Eckhart claimed the rape occurred, in which she told him: ‘You wanna f*** me,’ ‘Come spread them and slide my bikini off’, ‘F***ing dirty boy. I love it,’ and ‘Want it. Badly,’ according to screenshots of text messages in court filings.  

The legal filing said they had sadomasochistic, kinky sex on February 10, 2017, that was prompted by Eckhart’s ‘highly provocative sexting’.

The physical encounter involved Henry hitting her with a belt, and restraining her with handcuffs.

Although rough, Henry claimed it was all agreed on beforehand, saying she ‘sent Ed a photograph of a belt’ and told him in a text message that she would ‘always obey and make myself available to u’, adding ‘You NEED my 26-year-old p***y.’ 

The day before the sexual encounter, Henry texted Eckhart: ‘Gentle little wh**e. Gonna get tossed around like a rag doll,’ and she replied ‘Love that,’ according to the WhatsApp screenshots.

Henry has been married to NPR Managing Editor Shirley Henry since 2010.

Henry countered in a legal filing that Eckhart cherry-picked excerpts of their text conversations to cast him as a rapist when he claimed that it was instead a steamy, consensual affair.

When a federal judge threw out Eckhart’s claims against Fox News earlier this year, they ruled that there was ‘no direct evidence that (the network) was aware of Henry’s alleged harassment of Eckhart before (her firing) occurred.’ 

Just days after she claimed he raped her, Eckhart texted Henry: ‘You wanna f*** me,’ ‘Come spread them and slide my bikini off’, according to screenshots in court filings 

Text messages that Henry’s lawyers said depicted their rough, consensual affair. In these texts, Henry asks Eckhart when she’s available so she can get ‘slapped around. In response, Eckhart coyly states ‘Hmm.. idk’, ‘I’m really busy’

Henry countered in a legal filing that Eckhart cherry-picked excerpts of their text conversations to cast him as a rapist when he claimed that it was instead a steamy, consensual affair 

Henry has been married to NPR Managing Editor Shirley Henry since 2010 

Eckhart was an associate producer at Fox News, however her termination came as a result of ‘substantial performance deficiencies’, the network claimed.

The network said she was fired after being put on a ‘performance improvement plan’, and her eventual dismissal came before she ever made complaints of her interactions with Henry.

Fox News previously argued that when they fired Eckhart, it was not out of retaliation because she did not come forward with her claims against Henry until after she had been terminated.

The network insisted it had ‘legitimate, non-pretextual reasons for terminating her.’