Email shows Bill O'Reilly's lawyers had one last trick up their sleeves

A 20-year career at Fox News is a hard thing to walk away from, and in Bill O'Reilly's case, new emails show just how far lawyers were prepared to go to save his job.

Politico has accidentally forwarded correspondence between O'Reilly and his legal team.

In it, lawyers muse over whether they should argue the sexual allegations were actually part of a liberal smear campaign.

His legal counsel apparently had an email in their arsenal from April 13th by Mary Pat Bonner, an ally of liberal watchdog group Media Matters which urged advertisers to pull their spots from "The O'Reilly Factor."

Ever since the New York Times uncovered a $13 million dollar payout to five women accusing him of sexual misconduct, O'Reilly has maintained his innocence, calling them "unfounded" but he seemed less than convinced arguing a hit job would be a good idea.

He wrote, "If we show to Fox tomorrow, word will get out and the Thursday call may be canceled. So no formal sending to Rupert until after the call. You all should know that I will not put up with much more from FNC."

We don't know if that Thursday call ever came to fruition, or if Rupert Murdoch ever saw the email, but it probably wouldn't have made a difference.

By Wednesday, as he shook the hands of the pope, the king of cable news was out.

He's expected to be leaving with a $25 million dollar payout.

But despite The Factor losing half of its sponsors and its star, Fox News may still weather the storm.

Wednesday night Dana Perino won the 8pm slot over her rivals, with 3.3 million viewers.