There’s another reason why Chris Cuomo didn’t want to cover his brother’s sexual harassment scandals. He was too busy trying to dig up info on his brother’s accusers to the elder Cuomo him with the ‘prep’.
NEW: CNN host Chris Cuomo used his sources to get info on brother Andrew Cuomo's accusers. He also engaged with sources to get a read on upcoming stories that took aim at his brother.
"I have a lead on the wedding girl," Cuomo told Melissa DeRosa. https://t.co/KNEYbGXoGu
— Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbCNBC) November 29, 2021
CNBC – CNN host Chris Cuomo used his sources in the media world to seek information on women who accused his brother Andrew Cuomo, then the governor of New York, of sexual harassment, according to documents released Monday by the New York Attorney General’s Office.
While Chris Cuomo has previously acknowledged advising his brother and his team on the response to the scandals, the records show that his role in helping the then-governor was much larger and more intimate than previously known.
Chris Cuomo was actively in touch with Melissa DeRosa, who was the then-governor’s top aide, about incoming media reports that detailed alleged sexual harassment by Andrew Cuomo, according to exhibits from the Attorney General’s probe and a transcript of his interview with the state’s investigators. He also lobbied to help the governor’s office as it sought to weather the storm of accusations, and he dictated statements for the then-governor to use.
“Please let me help with the prep,” Chris Cuomo said to DeRosa in one message in early March. Then, three days after the New York Times reported in March about how Andrew Cuomo attempted to kiss a woman, Anna Ruch, in an unwanted advance at a wedding, Chris Cuomo texted DeRosa: “I have a lead on the wedding girl.”
Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, resigned in August after state Attorney General Letitia James, who is now running for governor herself, issued her report on the alleged misconduct. Andrew Cuomo has continued to deny wrongdoing. Chris Cuomo has previously said that he wasn’t an official advisor to his brother, but he did acknowledge he counseled him and that he was one of the people who encouraged the governor to step down.
A CNN spokeswoman did not return an email seeking comment.
Chris Cuomo told investigators that he engaged with what he described as “sources” regarding the various allegations against his brother that were described in at least one news article, according to the records. He also said he talked to his sources about yet-to-be-published stories from media outlets.
“I would – when asked, I would reach out to sources, other journalists, to see if they had heard of anybody else coming out,” Cuomo told investigators.
On March 12, Chris Cuomo sent a text message to DeRosa with a full written statement for the governor.
“I will not resign, I cannot resign,” the texted statement reads. “I understand the political pressure I understand the stakes of political warfare, and that’s what this is… And I understand the conformity that can be forced by cancel culture,” it also says.
It sounds to me like Fredo was trying to help his elder brother get out from under these legitimate sexual harassment scandals by trying to dig up info on these girls, something that the pervert governor could use in his defense. This is the same Fredo who stands on his CNN pedestal nightly and attacks people like Kavanaugh, who are completely innocent.
Why hasn’t CNN fired him yet?