CNN suspends Chris Cuomo after new harassment documents released

A day after New York Attorney General Letitia James released additional transcripts, exhibits and videos from her office’s investigation into former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Monday, CNN indefinitely suspended his brother Chris over the documents Tuesday. According to some of those documents, Chris played a larger role than previously thought in helping his brother fight sexual harassment allegations. Those allegations forced former Gov. Cuomo to resign back in August.

“When Chris admitted to us that he had offered advice to his brother’s staff, he broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly. But we appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second,” CNN Communications said in a statement, according to a tweet from CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter. “However, these documents point to a greater level of involvement in his brother’s efforts.

According to Monday’s documents, Chris Cuomo offered to reach out to “sources,” including other reporters, to find out whether more women were going to come forward. He would then relay what he was hearing to his brother’s advisers. Chris also sparred with those advisers over strategy, urging an apologetic tone and critiquing an early statement that he saw as downplaying the allegations.

“I was worried that this wasn’t being handled the right way, and it’s not my job to handle it, okay?” Chris Cuomo told investigators, according to the transcript. “I don’t work for the governor.”

The Cuomo documents released Monday also included hours of video testimony of the former governor. The video shows Andrew defiantly denying allegations as he spoke with the lawyers questioning him.

“At one point there has to be a little reality,” Cuomo said during an interview with investigators, who were asking him about the allegations brought forth by Brittany Commisso. “To touch a woman’s breast who I hardly know in the mansion with 10 staff around, with my family in the mansion to say, I don’t care who sees us… I would have to lose my mind to do such a thing.”