In his $400 million defamation lawsuit against CBS Corp., Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax not only accuses the television network of smearing his name and helping to cost him his partnership at Morrison & Foerster. He also asserts that a senior in-house CBS lawyer, whom he describes as a "friend," knew the network was airing allegedly false sexual assault claims against him.

CBS has vowed to contest the suit, stating it stands by its coverage of allegations against Fairfax that were made last year by Meredith Watson and Vanessa Tyson.

Fairfax moonlighted at Morrison & Foerster until earlier this year, when he took leave under the glare of sexual misconduct allegations by the two women, and then finally withdrew from the partnership in July.

In his new lawsuit, Fairfax suggests that CBS's reporting on the misconduct claims against him—which he has strenuously denied—left him no choice but to abandon his position at the law firm. At Morrison & Foerster, the suit says, "he would have earned millions of dollars over the years."

Morrison & Foerster's profits per partner last year were $1.982 million, according to ALM data.

"As a result of CBS' reckless airing of false and defamatory statements, Justin Fairfax is now falsely labeled a 'rapist,' 'predator' and 'sexual abuser,'" the complaint states. "CBS' actions have exposed millions of people to lies that have done extraordinary damage to his reputation and his ability to earn a living. His once-promising career—a lawyer at top firms, former federal prosecutor, lieutenant governor of Virginia, candidate for governor of Virginia for 2021—has been severely damaged."

The complaint, filed Thursday in the Eastern District of Virginia, was lodged by three lawyers who haven't been previously associated with Fairfax's legal efforts related to the sexual misconduct scandal: Sara Kropf of Kropf Moseley in D.C., Jane Reynolds in Virginia, and Kiah Spinks in Virginia. None of the lawyers responded to requests for comment.

Fairfax's legal team has also included Rakesh Kilaru, a partner at Wilkinson Walsh + Eskovitz, whom Fairfax retained in January 2018 as reporters dug into his background. In March, Fairfax brought in Barry Pollack, partner at Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber, to engage with law enforcement authorities. Pollack said Friday that he's still representing Fairfax, but not in connection with the new defamation case.

The new lawsuit seeks punitive damages on top of at least $400 million in compensatory damages. Fairfax claims that there was an eyewitness present during a sexual encounter he had with Watson when the pair were students together at Duke University, and that the eyewitness has vouched for the allegedly consensual nature of the encounter—including to a mutual friend who is an associate general counsel at CBS.

"CBS published the interviews with Tyson and Watson despite knowing or recklessly disregarding that they contained false statements and despite knowing key facts and key lines of questioning that would have debunked each story," the lawsuit states. And, Fairfax asserts, "Even after learning about an exculpatory eyewitness to the encounter, CBS has refused, on at least two occasions, to update or correct its reporting concerning Watson and Fairfax's encounter in the spring of 2000, demonstrating CBS' continued malice."

Fairfax alleges that the unnamed CBS lawyer, whom he also describes as Watson's onetime romantic partner, did not make an effort to stop the airing of Watson's interview. The lawyer is not a defendant in the lawsuit, and attorneys involved in the lawsuit did not respond to messages seeking to confirm his identity.

"Any reasonable journalistic investigation by CBS would have established that an AGC [associate general counsel] at CBS attended Duke at the same time as Watson and Fairfax," the lawsuit stated. "From there, CBS would have been able to establish that Watson had a relationship with the AGC, that the AGC knew the accused and was aware of a witness that refuted Watson's allegations. It is beyond any reasonable belief that an explosive allegation being prepared within CBS and promoted aggressively on CBS that an elected public official committed a rape would not attract the attention of every lawyer in the CBS general counsel's office."

CBS sees it differently.

"We stand by our reporting and we will vigorously defend this lawsuit," a CBS spokesperson said in a statement.

Watson's attorney, Nancy Erika Smith of Smith Mullin, said in a statement, "We look forward to everyone testifying under oath, now that this matter is in court."