Disgraced former CNN star Chris Cuomo has attacked his old colleagues in a new court filing.
Cuomo is accusing current CNN stars Don Lemon and Jake Tapper of breaching journalistic standards.
The filing says:
“As long as [former CNN President Jeff] Zucker and [former executive Allison] Gollust believed CNN’s ratings would benefit, they were more than willing to disregard breaches of traditional journalistic standards by CNN personalities, such as Don Lemon and Jake Tapper, or even to engage in blatant breaches of journalistic ethics themselves.
“CNN allowed employees to retain their jobs for offenses much more egregious than anything CNN alleges Cuomo ever did.
“But because Cuomo was so strongly linked to Gov. Cuomo, whose political standing and corresponding value to CNN had turned dramatically, CNN falsely claimed that Cuomo violated its policies and practices as an excuse to terminate his contract.
“This is the epitome of hypocrisy, as there was no valid basis for terminating his contract.”
Cuomo is suing CNN for firing him over multiple scandals and is demanding $125 million in lost past earnings and future wages he will miss out on.
He said one of Lemon’s breeches was when he sent text messages to disgraced felon Jussie Smollett “to warn him that Chicago police did not believe Smollett’s allegations of suffering a racist, homophobic attack.”
The claim was filed by Cuomo’s attorneys at Freedman + Taitelman LLP and Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder LLP.
It includes $15 million that Cuomo claims is owed for the rest of his contract, but Cuomo also is demanding CNN pay “future wages lost as a result of CNN’s efforts to destroy his reputation in violation of the Agreement.”
Cuomo’s filing continues:
“As a result of Turner’s indefensible choice to unceremoniously fire him, Cuomo has been damaged in countless ways.
“Cuomo has had his journalistic integrity unjustifiably smeared, making it difficult if not impossible for Cuomo to find similar work in the future and damaging him in amounts exceeding $125 million.
“Turner’s unjustifiable termination of Cuomo reflects nothing more than an apparent rush to judgment and caving to uninformed public and internal pressure that was based on speculation and assumption rather than facts and evidence.
“CNN, including Zucker and Gollust, knew of Cuomo’s role as a confidant and sounding board to his brother, and the details of his interactions with Gov. Cuomo and his staff, long before the transcripts of the NYAG investigation were publicly disclosed.
“Cuomo had no reason to believe that his assistance to Gov. Cuomo was inconsistent with CNN’s or Turner’s policies nor its expectations, especially given the fact that Zucker and Gollust had encouraged him to do so and had themselves provided advice to Gov. Cuomo,” the filing said.
His lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement:
“It should by now be obvious that Chris Cuomo did not lie to CNN about helping his brother.
“In fact, as the limited information released from WarnerMedia’s investigation makes clear, CNN’s highest-level executive not only knew about Chris’s involvement in helping his brother but also actively assisted the Governor, both through Chris and directly themselves.
“As CNN has admitted, network standards were changed in a calculated decision to boost ratings.
“When those practices were called into question, Chris was made the scapegoat, it’s clear that CNN wrongfully terminated Chris and further violated the express terms of his employment agreement by allowing its employees to disparage him,” he said.
Chris Cuomo Spills the Tea on Former CNN Colleagues https://t.co/68KC4A57Pm
— RedState (@RedState) March 17, 2022
Chris Cuomo Serves CNN With $125M Arbitration Demand https://t.co/6USzKR3LcZ
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 16, 2022
