FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — The New York Jets are accused in a lawsuit by a former team vice president of firing her as part of the organization's response to allegations of sexual misconduct made against team President Hymie Elhai.
The Athletic reported that the lawsuit, which it obtained Friday, was filed Thursday by Elaine Chen, the Jets' former vice president of finance, who says she and her husband Larry Fitzpatrick, the team's former vice president of ticket sales, were fired as retaliation after the claims were made against Elhai.
Elhai has been with the organization since 2000 and became the team’s president in 2019.
In a statement to the Athletic, the Jets said the accusations against Elhai were investigated and deemed “baseless.” The team also said it plans to countersue Chen and Fitzpatrick for defamation and libel.
In her lawsuit, Chen said an anonymous email was sent to several team employees accusing Elhai of sending inappropriate text messages to female employees, as well as other incidents of misconduct.
Chen said in her lawsuit that the Jets, during their internal investigation, targeted people in the organization who “supported the allegations against Elhai and/or the belief that Mr. Elhai’s sexual conduct warranted an actual investigation and/or disciplinary action."
Chen said Fitzpatrick received a copy of the email, was “interrogated” about it by the Jets and was soon fired after confirming the allegations against Elhai.
According to the Athletic, the Jets said Chen participated in a “fabricated email” and the text messages and interactions attributed to Elhai were “grossly over-exaggerated and positioned for the sole purpose of the fabricated narrative.”
The Jets also said in the statement to the Athletic that the former employee responsible for the original email acknowledged during the team's investigation that the allegations against Elhai were false and they “worked with Fitzpatrick to facilitate the email.”
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FILE - New York Jets president Hymie Elhai looks on as players warm up before an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Oct. 8, 2023, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to meet Thursday at the White House with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, whose political party is widely considered to have won 2024 elections rejected by then-President Nicolás Maduro before the United States captured him in an audacious military raid this month.
Less than two weeks after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges, Trump will host the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, having already dismissed her credibility to run Venezuela and raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in the country.
“She’s a very nice woman,” Trump told Reuters in an interview about Machado. “I’ve seen her on television. I think we’re just going to talk basics.”
The meeting comes as Trump and his top advisers have signaled their willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and along with others in the deposed leader's inner circle remain in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
Rodríguez herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move reportedly made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump told reporters. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
In endorsing Rodríguez, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela. She had sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key advisers like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a political gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government. She also intends to have a meeting in the Senate on Thursday afternoon.
Despite her alliance with Republicans, Trump was quick to snub her following Maduro’s capture. Just hours afterward, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country. She’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump coveted. She has since thanked Trump and offered to share the prize with him, a move that has been rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
