Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Turner
- CNN has fired the anchor Chris Cuomo, the news network announced Saturday evening.
- The younger Cuomo became ensnared in his brother Andrew's scandals before he resigned as NY governor.
- New transcripts from his deposition in the sexual harassment investigation showed his involvement was deeper than previously reported.
CNN has fired Chris Cuomo amid revelations that the anchor used his media sources to help his brother, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, fight sexual harassment allegations.
The news network suspended Chris and announced an investigation into his conduct on November 30, shortly after the New York Attorney General's office released transcripts showing the extent of Chris' efforts to defend his brother.
"We retained a respected law firm to conduct the review, and have terminated him, effective immediately," CNN said in a statement Saturday evening. "While in the process of that review, additional information has come to light. Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate."
The network did not detail what new information had surfaced.
In a statement of his own on Saturday, Chris said CNN's decision was "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," the statement said. "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."
Chris had previously apologized for coaching his brother through the sexual harassment scandal and effectively recused himself from covering one of the year's most explosive political stories.
But the newly released transcripts indicated that Chris gone so far as to use his media sources to dig up information about a woman who accused his brother of sexual harassment.
For instance, Chris wrote in one text message that he had "a lead on the wedding girl," referring to an accuser named Anna Ruch.
Before Andrew resigned as governor in August, Ruch was the subject of a New York Times exposé from March detailing unwanted advances she said he made on her at a wedding.
In a statement to Insider on November 29, a CNN spokesperson defended the anchor and denied that he dictated any of his brother's statements.
"The claim that Chris dictated his brother's statements is false," a representative for Warner Media told Insider in a statement. "There is no evidence of this in the exhibits or transcript. If you carefully read through the text messages in the exhibit, any mention of a statement was in response to it being made public."
A graduate of The Albany Academy, Yale University, and the Fordham University School of Law, Cuomo started out appearing as a guest on cable and TV networks before landing his first full-time gig in the industry as a correspondent for Fox News. He was also the co-anchor of "Good Morning America" on ABC from 2006 until 2009.
source https://www.businessinsider.com/chris-cuomo-fired-cnn-andrew-sexual-harassment-scandal-2021-11