DALLAS _ Conservative commentator Tomi Lahren is alleging that her former boss, Glenn Beck, engaged in "misconduct, which should be exposed for what it is," according to a court filing submitted by her lawyer Monday.
Lahren, a young star pundit, is suing Beck and his Irving-based media firm, TheBlaze, for firing her for saying she favors abortion rights and saying it would be hypocritical to support both limited government and government interference in abortion.
TheBlaze has denied that Lahren was fired, saying she continues to draw a salary. However, she argues that she has been effectively fired since her show was canceled and she was locked out of the office and her work email account.
Lahren, 24, is seeking to be freed from her employment contract, to be able to compete with TheBlaze and Beck, and to be free to express her "salient views" on "defendants and particularly Beck's misconduct, which should be exposed for what it is."
The filing does not specify what misconduct Lahren is alleging.
TheBlaze has taken control of Lahren's Facebook page, where she has 4.2 million followers, and refuses to give her access to it, her suit alleges.
Lahren's "Facebook page is her personal page," the new filing says, and Lahren never provided her "extremely valuable ownership and property rights in either her name or likeness to anyone including" TheBlaze and Beck.
Lahren's suit alleges that the controversy surrounding her abortion comments on "The View" TV show was "a public smear campaign" orchestrated to "inflate Beck's profile, from what has become a mediocre following, all at (Lahren's) expense."
Eliot Burriss, a lawyer representing Beck and TheBlaze, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did a spokesman.
Lahren's lawyer, Brian Lauten, was to appear before a civil court judge Monday afternoon to argue that she should be immediately freed from the contract and given back her Facebook page.
In the "unlikely event" that the court doesn't order TheBlaze to return control of the Facebook page back to Lahren, her filing says, she will sue for extensive damages since she will have been "irreparably harmed."
In Lahren's contract, TheBlaze reserved the right to suspend and then terminate Lahren for, among other things, "conduct or involvement in a situation that brings employee into public disrespect, offends the community or any group thereof, or embarrasses or reflects unfavorably on (TheBlaze's) reputation."
