Fox News Mole to Plead Guilty

Gawker says that Joe Muto, the former producer for Bill O'Reilly who did a short-lived star turn as "the Fox Mole" on Gawker about a year ago, will plead guilty today in a Manhattan criminal courtroom to misdemeanor attempted theft and attempted computer tampering charges.

The agreement, in which the Manhattan District Attorney's office has pledged not to file harsher felony charges in exchange for Muto's guilty plea on lesser offenses, stems from unaired, behind-the-scenes Fox News footage that was published on Gawker last year in posts attributed to the Fox Mole.

The Manhattan DA has been investigating Muto since April of last year, when it raided his apartment and confiscated his laptop, cell phone, and iPad. The agreement calls for Muto to pay a $1,000 fine, to forfeit the $5,000 "fruits of his wrongdoing"—Muto was paid $5,000 by Gawker for his posts—and to serve more than 200 hours in community service at a nonprofit.

After he outed himself, Muto—whose work here was accompanied by, among other things, footage of Mitt Romney chatting about his dressage horses with Sean Hannity during commercial breaks and a picture of Bill O'Reilly with a topless woman—secured a reported six-figure book deal with Dutton. That book, An Atheist in the FOXhole, is due out next month.

More from Gawker