CNN president Jeff Zucker abruptly resigned from the news network on Wednesday, catching the entire media world, and employees at CNN, by surprise. Zucker admitted in his resignation email that he had failed to disclose a “consensual relationship” with his closest colleague, who he did not name. However, CNN chief marketing officer Allison Gollust later issued a statement confirming she was the person involved with Zucker and that the relationship was indeed consensual.
Naturally, the situation has become a bit more complicated than simply an office romance. New reporting has revealed that Gollust briefly worked as an aide for former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was forced to resign from office over allegations of sexual misconduct. His brother, Chris Cuomo, would later be fired from CNN for using his media resources to allegedly disparage the former governor’s accusers. According to Politico, Cuomo’s exit snowballed into Zucker’s abrupt resignation:
In his memo, Zucker said he was asked about his relationship during an investigation into Chris Cuomo’s conduct. Two sources with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly said that Cuomo’s legal team, which continues to negotiate his exit from the network, raised issues about the relationship between Zucker and Gollust. Cuomo’s legal team asserted that Zucker was hypocritical to suggest Cuomo had a personal conflict of interest when the relationship with Gollust represented a potential conflict as well.
As Politico notes, additional reporting from Puck News’ Matt Belloni claims that Chris Cuomo’s legal team recently made a request that exacerbated the situation with Zucker and Gollust.
“I’m told CNN received a litigation hold letter recently from Chris Cuomo lawyers, demanding, among other things, preservation of all communications between Zucker, comms chief Allison Gollust, and Andrew Cuomo,” Belloni tweeted shortly after news of Zucker’s resignation broke.
Potentially important: I’m told CNN received a litigation hold letter recently from Chris Cuomo lawyers, demanding, among other things, preservation of all communications between Zucker, comms chief Allison Gollust, and Andrew Cuomo.
— Matthew Belloni (@MattBelloni) February 2, 2022
Sure sounds like the guy who once got Conan O’Brien arrested made a real mess of things over at CNN.
(Via Politico)