CNN fired anchor Chris Cuomo on Sunday after new court documents revealed his role in defending his brother Andrew Cuomo, former New York Governor, over sexual harassment allegations.
The news network that had suspended Cuomo on Tuesday announced his termination and wrote in a statement, “Chris Cuomo was suspended earlier this week pending further evaluation of new information that came to light about his involvement with his brother’s defense. We retained a respected law firm to conduct the review, and have terminated him, effective immediately. While in the process of that review, additional information has come to light. Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate.”
Cuomo had joined CNN in 2013 to co-host its morning show. In 2018 it was announced that Cuomo would move to prime time with CNN’s most-watched news show Cuomo Prime Time.
In response, Cuomo wrote on Twitter, “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 as CNN’s #1 show in the most competitive time slot. I owe them all and will miss that group of special people who did really important work”.
In December 2020, Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Andrew Cuomo, called him out on Twitter for sexually harassing her for years. A criminal complaint was filed against him on October 29 in a New York court.
An investigation by the New York Attorney General’s office found that he had “sexually harassed a number of State employees through unwelcome and unwanted touching, as well as by making numerous offensive and sexually suggestive comments. Following this, Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation in August this year.
However, he has denied all the allegations against him.
His brother, Chris Cuomo aka Christopher C Cuomo, admitted in May that he had breached some of the channel’s rules and advised his brother on handling the allegations from the perspective of public relations.
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At the time, CNN had “appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second,” said the channel in a statement on Tuesday. However, the new court documents “raise serious questions,” it added.
Earlier, Time’s Up, the organisation that promotes the idea of a safe workspace for women, also became embroiled in controversy for its alleged complicity in shrouding the harassment allegations against Andrew Cuomo. The organisation, which was founded in the wake of the MeToo movement, following the sexual harassment cases against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, recently announced a complete reset, including the dissolution of its board and the laying off of most of its 25 staff members.