When Chris Cuomo was fired from his CNN gig in December, the journalist’s unethical attempts to aid his also embattled brother weren’t the only issue he faced. He’d also been accused of sexual misconduct. Details about the latter have been kept out of the public eye, but now we’re learning that he reportedly made sketchy attempts to silence his accuser.
A new piece by The New York Times (in a bit teased out by The Wrap) reveals more about the incident, which occurred in 2011, involving an anonymous woman who had worked with Cuomo at ABC News. Cuomo had invited the young woman, a temp hoping for a full-time job, to lunch, during which he promised career advice. When she arrived, she found no food. Instead, Cuomo allegedly assaulted her.
Years later, at the height of the #MeToo movement, when figures like Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer were being belatedly punished for their alleged actions, Cuomo rang her up out of the blue:
Mr. Cuomo proposed arranging a CNN segment about the company where she worked doing public relations. The woman tried to avoid any contact with Mr. Cuomo, but CNN ultimately broadcast a segment anyway.
“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,” Ms. Katz wrote.
This story was recounted in a letter sent by a lawyer representing the woman Cuomo had alleged assaulted to CNN. It arrived less than 24 hours after Jeff Zucker, who up till recently was the president of the network, had effectively assured Cuomo that he’d be back on air after having been suspended for not disclosing how closely he’d aided his brother, disgraced New York governor Andrew Cuomo, against his own allegations of sexual misconduct.
The letter described Cuomo’s actions as an “abuse of power at CNN to attempt to silence my client.” The article goes on to explain how this set of a chain reaction that led to Zucker’s own ouster from the network.
