Cuomo accused of sexual misconduct days earlier than being fired by CNN, lawyer says – Nationwide

Chris Cuomo was hit with a brand new allegation of sexual harassment simply days earlier than CNN introduced it was firing the anchor amid an investigation into work he did defending his brother from comparable harassment allegations.

Lawyer Debra Katz mentioned Sunday her shopper was the sufferer of “critical sexual misconduct” by Cuomo and that she had contacted CNN in regards to the lady’s allegations on Wednesday.

CNN suspended Cuomo earlier this week after particulars emerged about how he assisted his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, because the politician confronted sexual harassment allegations. When it introduced Community officers mentioned “extra data has come to mild” when it introduced Chris Cuomo’s firing, however didn’t elaborate.

Katz mentioned the accuser determined to come back ahead got here after the New York lawyer normal’s workplace launched proof displaying Cuomo had taken a way more energetic function than beforehand thought in strategizing and serving to to craft a response to the allegations his brother was dealing with. When the preliminary allegations surfaced towards Andrew Cuomo, Chris Cuomo had advised viewers he had “all the time cared very deeply about these points,” Katz mentioned.

“Listening to the hypocrisy of Chris Cuomo’s on-air phrases and disgusted by his efforts to attempt to discredit these girls, my shopper retained counsel to report his critical sexual misconduct towards her to CNN,” Katz mentioned within the assertion.

CNN was reviewing Chris Cuomo’s conduct following the brand new data, and a legislation agency employed to assist had advisable the community terminate Chris Cuomo.

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“It goes with out saying that these choices are usually not straightforward, and there are lots of complicated elements concerned,” CNN chief Jeff Zucker wrote in an e mail to CNN workers on Saturday.

Cuomo issued an announcement on Twitter calling the choice disappointing.

“This isn’t how I would like my time at CNN to finish however I’ve already advised you why and the way I helped my brother. So let me now say as disappointing as that is, I couldn’t be extra happy with the workforce at Cuomo Prime Time and the work we did,” he mentioned.

The brand new misconduct allegation comes after a veteran TV government, Shelley Ross, wrote a column for The New York Occasions in September saying Chris Cuomo had groped her at a celebration 16 years in the past, once they each labored for ABC Information. Cuomo advised the newspaper that “I apologized to her then, and I meant it.”