NBC terminates Mark Halperin's contract following sexual assault allegations

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NBC's Mark Halperin out after sexual harassment allegations

‘Game Change’ author and NBC News, MSNBC political analyst Mark Halperin is out at the network following sexual harassment allegations against him from five women.

NBC announced on Monday that the network has terminated the contract of on-air contributor Mark Halperin, according to multiple media reports. Last week, Halperin was accused of sexual assault by several women.

MSNBC previously suspended Halperin on Thursday. The network stated it found Halperin's conduct as described in a CNN story "very troubling." The alleged misconduct took place while Halperin was an exec at ABC News.

Halperin has apologized for what he termed inappropriate behavior, and ABC said Thursday that no complaints were filed against him during his tenure, which ended more than a decade ago.

ALL THE SEXUAL ASSAULT ALLEGATIONS AGAINST MARK HALPERIN

The women, who asked to remain anonymous, said they didn't report Halperin's conduct because they feared retribution or were embarrassed.

But Emily Miller, a former ABC employee who is now a reporter at One America News Network, retweeted the Halperin story on Thursday with the hashtag "#MeToo."

She gave no details of her alleged incident, but tweeted that she did not report Halperin to ABC "because I thought I was the only one, and I blamed myself, and I was embarrassed and I was scared of him."

CNN international correspondent Clarissa Ward, who also used to work at ABC, tweeted that Halperin's behavior was "an open secret" at the network. She saluted the women who came forward in the CNN story.

"Let's be very clear — the one responsible for any sexual misconduct that may have taken place is the man who instigated it," Ward tweeted, "NOT the women who were victims of it, nor their friends and colleagues who tried to support them through it."

Halperin told CNN Wednesday night that he's "deeply sorry" and is taking a "step back" from day-to-day work to deal with the situation.

His statement came after CNN reported allegations that Halperin propositioned, fondled and pushed himself against five women in the early 2000s while he was ABC News' political director.

Halperin says he pursued relationships, sometimes with junior co-workers, but CNN says he denies the groping allegations.

Later Thursday, Penguin Press canceled a planned book by Halperin and John Heilemann about the 2016 election and HBO called off a miniseries that would have been based on the book. Halperin and Heilemann had collaborated on two previous books, including "Game Change," a best-seller about the 2008 race that almost single-handedly revived the campaign book genre and was the basis for an award-winning HBO adaptation.

"HBO has no tolerance for sexual harassment within the company or its productions," the company said in an emailed statement.

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Thursday, co-host Mika Brzezinski informed viewers about Halperin. He has been a frequent panelist on the show.

"We're going to be following this story as it develops," she said. "I'm sure we'll be talking about it again when we know more about it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.