Tomi Lahren, the outspoken conservative commentator who caused chaos at The Blaze after telling the ladies on The View she was pro-choice, has filed suit against Glenn Beck and his media company, claiming she was wrongfully terminated.
Lahren, 24, filed her suit Friday in Irving, Texas, where The Blaze studios are headquartered. The South Dakota native claims that Beck and the network tossed her and cancelled her show after finding out she supported abortion rights.
Speaking to CNN, Lahren’s lawyer said his client was “disappointed” that she was forced to pursue litigation. “The fact of the matter is that she was wrongfully terminated. The contract simply doesn’t allow The Blaze to terminate her for expressing her personal opinion on the salient issue of abortion,” he told reporters.
Lahren, a University of Nevada-Las Vegas graduate, made no comment to the media. Instead, she took to Twitter.
After her appearance on The View, Lahren was suspended by Beck for a week. She says, however, that executives from the network told her not to expect to return. She was “terminated” and “would have no more shows.” After that, the suit claims, Lahren was told to “remain silent” on social media and locked out of her Facebook page, where she has several million followers.
“To add insult to injury, at [The Blaze‘s] place of business, in Irving, Texas, employees stretched yellow caution tape spelling an ‘X’ on Plaintiff’s office/dressing room door,” the filing says.
Lahren also claims that Beck engaged in what she considers a “public smear campaign,” taking her to task for her often conflicting political views, and her lack of education on the issues.
Furthermore, she accuses Beck of “unlawful animus and a specific intent to inflate Beck’s profile, from what has become a mediocre following, all at Plaintiff’s expense.”
Lahren’s lawsuit goes on to decry how Beck treated her: “It is not secret … that Beck is known for belittling, berating and acting in a condescending and heavy-handed way and his treatment of Plaintiff, in particular, is a case in point.”
Beck and The Blaze say Lahren has no cause to believe she’s been wrongfully terminated – or, really, terminated at all. They claimed in a statement late Friday that Lahren is still receiving payments on a contract, and cashing her paycheck. Lahren acknowledges that she’s being paid, but says that The Blaze is just fulfilling the terms of her contract while she looks for other work.
Lahren’s contract was appended to her lawsuit, and is a generous one for a 24 year old neophyte. It promises her a staff of at least three people to produce her show, hair and makeup services, a wardrobe allowance and business class air travel.
Sources close to Beck’s network say there’s no way Lahren was fired simply for changing her mind on abortion rights. Those sources tell Heat Street that Lahren was difficult to work with, allegedly prone to angry outbursts at staff and crew, and that the network had simply had enough.