By Eric Ringham, Matt Sepic

MPR News/90.1 FM

Two days after an MPR News investigation detailed years of alleged mistreatment, sexualization and belittling of some women who worked for Garrison Keillor, the popular host blasted MPR leadership and said one victim “enjoyed the flirtation.”

“If I am guilty of harassment, then every employee who stole a pencil is guilty of embezzlement,” Keillor said in a statement to MPR News. (Read the whole statement here.)

He also shot back at a woman who accused Keillor of “dozens of sexually inappropriate incidents … over a period of years,” according to a letter from MPR CEO Jon McTaggart sent on Tuesday to listeners and members.

McTaggart’s letter came after repeated requests for interviews by MPR News reporters who interviewed more than 60 people who either worked for or crossed professional paths with the 75-year-old former host of Prairie Home Companion. MPR — the parent company of MPR News, which is separate from the rest of the company by an editorial firewall — severed business ties with Keillor, who also created The Writer’s Almanac, in November. The investigation outlined in detail the workplace atmosphere that left several women who worked for Keillor feeling mistreated, sexualized or belittled.

Keillor declined requests for interviews. But on Wednesday, in an email to KARE 11 reporter and host Jana Shortal , Keillor said “the allegations are untrue … whatever flirtation occurred between the complainant and me was mutual, believe me.” He added that “she enjoyed flirtation, as many people do.”

On Nov. 29, 2017, Minnesota Public Radio announced it was severing its business ties with Garrison Keillor, creator of A Prairie Home Companion and The Writer’s Almanac. The company had cited alleged “inappropriate behavior” with a female colleague as its reason.

In case you missed the MPR News investigation, here’s a quick recap of the major findings:

• Keillor, creator and longtime host of A Prairie Home Companion, had affairs with at least two subordinates in the last decade. In one case, his production company sent the woman involved a check for $16,000, along with a confidentiality agreement and a new work contract. The woman did not cash the check and signed neither the agreement nor the contract.

• Keillor could be warm and supportive to his coworkers, but he could also be withering in his criticism. Two different women who worked with him on The Writer’s Almanac, a short daily show about literature, described Keillor as a boss who would take evident relish in crumpling up their work and stuffing it into a wastebasket. One of those women says she was fired under pretense of a reorganization and then replaced by a younger woman. She sued MPR in 1999, and her suit was resolved before trial.

• As the proprietor of a bookstore adjacent to the campus of Macalester College and as a temporary, unpaid faculty member at the University of Minnesota, Keillor crossed boundaries with young women. At the bookstore, he wrote an off-color limerick that suggested a certain female employee could “make a petrified phallus stir.” At the university, when a young woman suggested that he give her an internship, he agreed — but added that he would have to suppress his “intense attraction” to her.

Since the story, Keillor, as well as MPR president and CEO Jon McTaggart, have responded to the report to MPR News and elsewhere.