NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Chris Cuomo was fired from CNN after a former colleague from his days at ABC News accused him of sexually assaulting her when she wouldn’t have sex with him in his office, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The accusation was sent to CNN lawyers in December, just hours after Cuomo was suspended for allegedly advising his brother, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, on how to dodge his own sexual harassment accusations, according to the report.
Details of the alleged encounter at ABC News in 2011 were laid out in a letter from sexual harassment lawyer Debra S. Katz to CNN’s general counsel.
The letter reportedly said Chris Cuomo had invited a young ABC temp—referred to as "Jane Doe" in the letter—for “lunch in his office” after offering her career advice.
But there was no food in the office when she arrived, and Cuomo instead “badgered her for sex,” according to the report. She declined, and he assaulted her before she ran out of the room, the letter alleged.
Years later, as the #MeToo movement was gaining steam—and after news giants Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer were toppled over misconduct allegations—Cuomo reportedly contacted the woman out of the blue.
Cuomo wanted to do a CNN segment about a public relations company where the woman worked, and while she tried to avoid contact with him, CNN ultimately ran the segment.
In her letter to CNN, Katz wrote: “After years without any substantive communication from Mr. Cuomo whatsoever, Ms. Doe suspected he was concerned about her coming forward publicly with her allegations and wanted to use the proposed segment as an opportunity to ‘test the waters’ and discourage her from going on the record about his sexual misconduct.”
Katz called it an “abuse of power at CNN to attempt to silence my client.”
Then–CNN president Jeff Zucker told the already suspended Cuomo that the scandals were “too much for us” and fired him on Dec. 4.
A spokesman for Cuomo denied the allegations made in the letter, according to the Times.
Wednesday's report comes a day after a second CNN executive exited the cable network in the wake of an internal Cuomo inquiry.
Allison Gollust, the CNN executive whose relationship with Zucker led to his resignation earlier this month, resigned after an internal inquiry found violations of news standards, parent company WarnerMedia said Tuesday.
Gollust's resignation followed the conclusion of an investigation concerning Chris and Andrew Cuomo, according to a memo from Jason Kilar, CEO of CNN parent WarnerMedia. The investigation, which concluded last week, relied on interviews and a review of 100,000-plus texts and emails.
Cuomo was first suspended from CNN last December after documents released by New York Attorney General Letitia James showed his behind-the-scenes role helping craft his brother’s response to harassment charges was more extensive than previously acknowledged.
James’ office also found that Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women. The former governor resigned in August to avoid a likely impeachment trial.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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