Chris Cuomo fired from his position as a host on CNN effective immediately per a statement put out by the network on Saturday following an investigation into him using his journalism contacts to help former Governor Andrew Cuomo. This comes just days after they announced Cuomo’s suspension from the network.
CNN retained an outside law firm to review information about how Chris Cuomo assisted his brother, disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo when the former governor was facing multiple sexual assault allegations.
CNN said 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.”
The text messages that were reviewed and the documents that were obtained pertaining to the investigation pointed to a serious breach of CNN’s own standards.
The CNN statement on Saturday also referred to “additional information [that] has come to light” during the review of the document dump. A CNN spokesperson declined to share any further detail about the information.
“While in the process of that review, additional information has come to light,” CNN’s statement added. “Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate.”
Cuomo tweeted out a response to his firing on Saturday following the announcement of his termination.
Cuomo wrote, “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.”
The documents that were reviewed showed that Cuomo worked with his brother’s handlers and staff to keep bad publicity at bay. This included leaning on media sources who reported on the allegations.
“When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly,” the network said in a statement on his suspension. “But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second.”
“However,” the network continued in its statement, “these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts than we previously knew. As a result, we have suspended Chris indefinitely, pending further evaluation.”
