Lis Wiehl (born August 19, 1961) is a New York Times bestselling American author of fiction and nonfiction books, and a legal analyst. She is the author of twenty books, including, most recently, A Spy in Plain Sight: The Inside Story of the FBI and Robert Hanssen―America's Most Damaging Russian Spy, published by Pegasus Books.
After working at NBC News and National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Wiehl moved to the Fox News Channel (FNC) where she served as a legal analyst and reporter for over fifteen years, appearing on numerous FNC shows. She is a regular commentator for CNN and also appears often on CBS, NPR and other news outlets.[2]
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Wiehl practiced law at Perkins Coie, a private law firm in Seattle where she also wrote by-lined articles on legal issues for the New York Times. From there she went on to become a third generation federal prosecutor (her grandfather and her father — an FBI agent — were also federal prosecutors) in the US Attorney's Office in Seattle.[3][4] She served as the Deputy Chief Investigative Counsel for Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee during President Clinton's impeachment.[5] From 1995 to 2001, she was a tenured law professor at the University of Washington School of Law in Seattle, where she ran the Trial Advocacy Program, which won several national awards during her tenure.[4][6]
During her time at the University of Washington, Wiehl also stepped deeper into journalism by working as a reporter and legal analyst for NPR's All Things Considered and NBC News.[4] She soon came to be in high demand for her commentary.
In 2005, Wiehl released her first book, Winning Every Time: How to Use the Skills of a Lawyer in the Trials of Your Life. Two years later she released The 51% Minority: How Women Still Are Not Equal and What You Can Do About It which was awarded the 2008 award for Books for a Better Life in the motivational category.[6] Since then, Wiehl has continued to write best-selling books of fiction and non-fiction including, in 2022, A Spy in Plain Sight: The Inside Story of the FBI and Robert Hanssen―America's Most Damaging Russian Spy.[9][10][11][12]
Wiehl was the co-host of WOR Tonight With Joe Concha & Lis Wiehl on 710 WOR[13] and she was also an adjunct professor of law at New York Law School. She continues to appear in the media as a legal expert and commentator for organizations including CNN, CBS, NBC, and NPR among others. Lis Wiehl lectures at colleges and universities, appears as a keynote speaker, and speaks at bookstores, conferences, and literary festivals.[2][7][8][12][14][15][16][17]
Wiehl made sexual harassment allegations against Bill O'Reilly in early 2017 and received a $32 million settlement from him. Fox News was not a party to this settlement and regarded it as a personal issue between O'Reilly and Wiehl. They claim they were not informed of the amount of money involved. Wiehl signed an affidavit on January 17, 2017, stating that she and O'Reilly had settled their dispute. Her allegations and affidavit referred to repeated sexual harassment, a nonconsensual sexual relationship, and sexually explicit e-mails that O'Reilly had sent to her. O'Reilly claims that he forwarded these e-mails to Wiehl, who was working as his personal lawyer, as part of a process where he would forward any threatening e-mails he received to his lawyers.[18]
