CNN fires Chris Cuomo after probe into his efforts to help his brother

In a statement Saturday, CNN said it had hired a law firm to investigate Chris Cuomo’s conduct after newly released records by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James showed the anchor had taken a greater role in the defense of Andrew Cuomo than was previously known.

The law firm compared the records released by the New York attorney general’s office with Chris Cuomo’s on-air statements and conversations he had with CNN employees about his role in Andrew Cuomo’s defense, according to a person familiar with the matter. The firm found gaps between Chris Cuomo’s statements and the records released by Ms. James’s office and concluded that CNN had cause to fire Chris Cuomo, the person said.

CNN President Jeff Zucker called Chris Cuomo earlier Saturday to fire him, the person said.

Chris Cuomo said in a statement on Twitter Saturday afternoon this wasn’t how he had wanted his time at CNN to end, and thanked his co-workers. “I owe them all and I will miss that group of special people who did really important work," he said.

CNN may investigate new information that came to light during the review of Chris Cuomo’s conduct, the person familiar with the matter said.

“Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate," CNN said in its statement.

On Wednesday, Debra Katz, a lawyer based in Washington, D.C., sent CNN a letter informing the network of an allegation of sexual misconduct against Chris Cuomo made by a former colleague of his at another network, Ms. Katz said in an interview Saturday. Ms. Katz declined to name her client or provide additional details about the allegation. The New York Times earlier reported on Ms. Katz’s outreach to CNN.

“These apparently anonymous allegations are not true," a spokesman for Chris Cuomo said Saturday.

A CNN spokeswoman on Saturday evening said CNN had cause to terminate Chris Cuomo when the network received the law firm’s report detailing the anchor’s involvement in Andrew Cuomo’s defense. “When new allegations came to us this week, we took them seriously, and saw no reason to delay taking immediate action," the CNN spokeswoman said.

On Monday, Ms. James’s office released new records that showed Chris Cuomo checked with sources to find out if stories about his brother’s accusers were forthcoming and gave detailed feedback on his brother’s statements to the press.

CNN, a unit of AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia, said Monday that the “thousands of pages of additional transcripts and exhibits" released by Ms. James’s office deserved “a thorough review and consideration." A day later, the network said Chris Cuomo was suspended indefinitely. “These documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew," a CNN spokesman said at the time.

Andrew Cuomo resigned earlier this year after Ms. James’s office published a report saying he sexually harassed multiple women in violation of state and federal laws, created a hostile work environment and retaliated against at least one former employee. Andrew Cuomo has said that he never touched anyone inappropriately.

Chris Cuomo apologized on-air in May after the Washington Post reported that he took part in strategy sessions involving his brother’s top aides as the former governor sought to respond to widening allegations of sexual harassment. At the time, Mr. Zucker told employees that Chris Cuomo’s involvement in his brother’s defense was “a mistake" but didn’t suspend the anchor, saying that would be “punishment for the sake of punishing."

Chris Cuomo’s fate at the network turned this week after the new records were released. Mr. Zucker suspended the anchor after a face-to-face meeting Tuesday; on Wednesday, Chris Cuomo said on his radio show that being suspended was embarrassing, but said he supported CNN’s review process.

The records released Monday by Ms. James’s office showed Chris Cuomo texted one of his brother’s former advisers, Melissa DeRosa, telling her he had “a lead on the wedding girl" shortly after the New York Times published a report that quoted a woman who said Andrew Cuomo touched her inappropriately at a wedding. It couldn’t be learned whether Chris Cuomo was referring to that woman.

The records also include an interview with Chris Cuomo conducted by investigators in which the anchor said he contacted other journalists to figure out whether stories about Andrew Cuomo’s conduct were in the works.

“When asked, I would reach out to sources, other journalists, to see if they had heard of anybody else coming out," Chris Cuomo told investigators, according to a transcript of the interview released by Ms. James’s office.

Chris Cuomo’s exit from CNN leaves a hole in the network’s crucial prime-time programming block. CNN on Friday said anchor Michael Smerconish would temporarily fill in for Chris Cuomo next week, but no permanent replacement has been named for the network’s highly rated hour.

CNN, like other cable news networks, has suffered viewership declines in 2021 compared with the previous year, when the fractious 2020 presidential election and its aftermath drove ratings to new heights. As it grapples with lower viewership on traditional TV, CNN is in the midst of launching a new streaming service—CNN+—that aims to catapult the network into the direct-to-consumer era by featuring shows with some of its most high-profile journalists.

Chris Cuomo’s dismissal comes as parent company AT&T is preparing to merge its media assets with those owned by Discovery Inc. Media mogul John Malone, a major Discovery shareholder, told CNBC in a November interview that he wanted to see CNN “actually have journalists" and “evolve back to the kind of journalism that it started with."

On Tuesday—the day Chris Cuomo was suspended—Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav met with Mr. Zucker and his top lieutenants at CNN’s headquarters in the Hudson Yards neighborhood of Manhattan as part of a prescheduled meet-and-greet. A person familiar with the meeting said that Chris Cuomo’s fate at the network didn’t come up.

Chris Cuomo joined CNN in 2013 from Walt Disney Co.’s ABC News. After co-anchoring the network’s morning show, “New Day," he moved to a prime-time slot in 2018.

In September, Chris Cuomo was accused of groping a TV journalist at a party in 2005 when they were co-workers at ABC News. He responded by saying he regretted the incident, which he said wasn’t sexual in nature. CNN had no additional comment at the time.

 

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text