In an aggressive preemptive strike filed today in New York State Supreme Court, O'Reilly names Fox associate producer Andrea Mackris and her lawyers as defendants in the action, which charges them with extortion, infliction of emotional distress, and wrongful interference with contractual relations. O'Reilly claims that Mackris, 33, and her counsel tried to extort hush money from him by threatening to file a bombshell lawsuit, a copy of which you'll find below. While acknowledging that he shared "dinner and cocktails" with Mackris--and even watched a presidential press conference alone with her in his hotel room--he denied engaging in any physical or sexual assaults or "offensive touching."

Here is the demand letter Mackris' lawyer, Benedict Morelli, sent to Fox a month ago, warning of the lawsuit.

O'Reilly, like everyone else, is entitled to the presumption of innocence.

On his show Wednesday, O'Reilly called the case "the single most evil thing I have ever experienced, and I've seen a lot. But these people picked the wrong guy."

As to the tapes,

O'Reilly's lawyer, Ronald Green, said he believes there are tapes of conversations between the two and asked a court to compel Mackris to produce them so they could be played publicly. "I know that he does not fear what is on the tapes," Green said.