It was quite a Black Friday announcement from Bill Shine, the White House communications chief, who will receive an $8.4 million payout package from his former employer Fox News.
That means that Shine will be paid simultaneously by both the White House and Fox News, a network that has had close ties to the Trump administration.
Shine received an $8.4 million severance package upon leaving his post as co-president of Fox News Channel in May 2017, according to a financial disclosure form he filed upon entering Trump’s White House as deputy chief of staff for communications.
The document was released to The Hollywood Reporter yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving.
Shine, who officially began working in the White House on July 5, will also receive a bonus and options of about $3.5 million from 21st Century Fox both this year and next year.
Shine was hired by Trump in July following his firing from Fox News last year for mishandling numerous sexual misconduct complaints.
Around $7 million of that is owed to Shine this year and in 2019 via a “future bonus” and “options.”
Shine was a key part of the conservative network’s pervasive culture.
The former Fox co-president was named in multiple lawsuits as an alleged enabler of Roger Ailes, the ex-chairman and CEO of Fox News who resigned in 2016 after multiple accusations of sexual misconduct.
Shine reportedly told subordinates not to speak up about Ailes’ alleged rampant abuse.
Shine was also involved in settlements with women who accused former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly of sexual harassment.
O’Reilly was ousted from the conservative network last year after the hush payments surfaced and advertisers bailed on his show.
Since Shine’s hiring, which was praised by O’Reilly and Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he has been involved in banning reporters from the White House and instituting new “rules” for the media that only allow one question to be asked.
Shine, who joined Fox News in 1996, received a $1,460,000 salary from the company, according to the form.
Shine has stock in the following companies: Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Google, Discovery, Disney, Facebook, Microsoft and Netflix.