Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo allegedly assaulted a female coworker at ABC News when she denied his invitation to engage in sexual intercourse in his office during lunch, a scathing new report revealed on Tuesday.
Hours after Cuomo was suspended for advising his brother, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, on how to respond to his own sexual harassment allegations, a letter from a prominent sexual harassment lawyer arrived at CNN, The New York Times reported.
The woman’s lawyer, Debra S Katz, described how ‘Jane Doe’ was a young, temporary ABC employee vying for a full-time job in 2011 when she met Cuomo.
The former Cuomo Prime Time host had offered her career advice and later invited her to lunch in his office, according to the December 1 letter from Katz.
But when Jane Doe arrived at Cuomo’s office there was no food. He then harassed her for sex, and after she declined he assaulted her, she said. Jane Doe ran out of the room.
The next day she reportedly tried to smooth out the interaction with Cuomo over email. It wasn’t until years later, at the height of the #MeToo movement, where she heard from Cuomo once again.
The 51-year-old news anchor had reached out to her offering to do a flattering news piece on the public relations company where she worked at the time.
‘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 wrote in the letter to CNN.
Multiple friends and former co-workers of Jane Doe said she had told them Cuomo made unwanted advances toward her, according to The Times.
In an interview with The Times, Jane Doe said she was ‘haunted’ by the parallels between her experience with Chris Cuomo and the accusers of his brother, the former governor, which prompted her to hire a lawyer.
The woman became ‘deeply traumatized’ by the incident, according to Katz, and did not want to become ‘a pawn in an internecine war between Zucker, Chris Cuomo and CNN.’ According to Katz, Jane Doe won’t be saying anything further.
The new information about the allegations against Cuomo come after CNN’s president Jeff Zucker resigned after failing to disclose his romantic relationship with CNN’s chief marketing officer Allison Gollust, who also just stepped away from the media organization.
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