Chris Cuomo accused of harassment days before firing from CNN
Posted December 5, 2021 3:43 pm.
Last Updated December 6, 2021 12:09 am.
NEW YORK (AP) — A new allegation of sexual harassment against Chris Cuomo emerged just days before CNN announced it was firing the anchor amid an investigation into work he did defending his brother from similar harassment allegations.
A woman who lodged a sexual harassment allegation against former Chris Cuomo was “disgusted” by what she saw as his hypocrisy and attempts to discredit women who made similar allegations against his brother, her lawyer said Sunday.
Attorney Debra Katz said Sunday her client was the victim of “serious sexual misconduct” by Chris Cuomo and that she had contacted CNN about the woman’s allegations on Wednesday.
The woman’s complaint became known shortly after CNN fired the “Cuomo Prime Time” anchor Saturday night. Chris Cuomo had been criticized for breaching journalistic ethics by trying to help his brother beat his own harassment charges.
Chris Cuomo, through a spokesman, said the charges were untrue. “If the goal in making these false and unvetted accusations was to see Mr. Cuomo punished by CNN, that may explain his unwarranted termination,” the spokesman said.
Katz also tied Cuomo’s firing to the accusations, saying in a statement that “CNN acted promptly on my client’s complaint and fired Mr. Cuomo.” Katz did not give any specifics about the alleged behavior, believed to have occurred before Cuomo joined CNN in 2013. Prior to that, he worked at ABC News.
CNN suspended Cuomo earlier this week after details emerged about how he assisted his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as the politician faced sexual harassment allegations. When it announced Network officials said “additional information has come to light” when it announced Chris Cuomo’s firing, but did not elaborate.
Katz said the accuser decided to come forward came after the New York attorney general’s office released evidence showing Cuomo had taken a much more active role than previously thought in strategizing and helping to craft a response to the allegations his brother was facing. When the initial allegations surfaced against Andrew Cuomo, Chris Cuomo had told viewers he had “always cared very deeply about these issues,” Katz said.
“Hearing the hypocrisy of Chris Cuomo’s on-air words and disgusted by his efforts to try to discredit these women, my client retained counsel to report his serious sexual misconduct against her to CNN,” Katz said in the statement.
CNN was reviewing Chris Cuomo’s conduct following the new information, and a law firm hired to help had recommended the network terminate Chris Cuomo.
“It goes without saying that these decisions are not easy, and there are a lot of complex factors involved,” CNN chief Jeff Zucker wrote in an email to CNN staff on Saturday.
Cuomo issued a statement on Twitter calling the decision disappointing.
“This is not how I want my time at CNN to end but I have already told you why and how I helped my brother. So let me now say as disappointing as this is, I could not be more proud of the team at Cuomo Prime Time and the work we did,” he said.
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) December 4, 2021
The new misconduct allegation comes after a veteran TV executive, Shelley Ross, wrote a column for The New York Times in September saying Chris Cuomo had groped her at a party 16 years ago, when they both worked for ABC News. Cuomo told the newspaper that “I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”
In responding to criticism of his actions regarding his brother, Cuomo has said that he was simply trying to help him — telling his CNN audience shortly after Andrew Cuomo resigned in August that “it’s never easy being in this business and coming from a political family.”
“I never attacked, nor encouraged anyone to attack, any woman who came forward,” Cuomo said on the air. “I never made calls to the press about my brother’s situation.”
However, in an email from last March newly released by the New York attorney general, Cuomo told one of his brother’s aides that “I have a lead on the wedding girl.” It was in reference to a woman who said in news reports she was uncomfortable with how the governor touched her when they met at a wedding.
Chris Cuomo, in testimony to Attorney General Letitia James’ investigators, explained that a “source” had called him and suggested that maybe the accuser had “been put up to” making the accusation. He relayed that to his brother’s aides, however, they told him the woman had made her discomfort known soon after it happened.
Cuomo also testified to investigators — a month before he told CNN viewers he had not called the press about his brother’s situation — that he had reached out privately to media figures to find out if there would be other accusers.
Cuomo has said he never tried to influence his own network’s coverage of his brother’s problems, and no evidence has emerged that he did.
His firing leaves a hole in CNN’s weeknight lineup. Even while competing in the same time slot with industry heavyweights Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, Cuomo was generally the most-watched personality on CNN.
