O'Reilly had come out with his lawsuit first on Wednesday, accusing Mackris and lawyer Benedict Morelli of seeking "hush money" during negotiations over the past few weeks. Mackris then immediately filed her harassment claim. O'Reilly faces a tough legal hurdle with his own case, since the law generally protects employees from retaliation if they come forward with an abuse allegation, said Debra Katz, an attorney who specializes in sexual harassment cases for Bernabei & Katz in Washington. "I think this is a crazy legal strategy," Katz said. "But I think they made the decision that the press strategy is more important here." Another expert in employment law, Kenneth Taber of the New York firm Pillsbury, Winthrop, said O'Reilly would have to go a lot further to prove extortion than just saying Mackris made monetary demands.