How the Fallout From Andrew Cuomo’s Resignation Spread to Jeff Zucker

When former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York was dealing with a cascade of sexual harassment allegations final 12 months, his intuition was not simply to combat however to eviscerate.

Because the tales piled up, Mr. Cuomo introduced collectively his inside circle, together with his youthful brother, the previous CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, to design a ferocious counteroffensive that included discrediting accusers, attacking unflattering information articles and ascribing bald political motives to the investigators.

An intuition to go for the jugular was a trademark of the governor’s lengthy political profession. However within the 12 months since he was first accused of sexual harassment, the techniques not solely have backfired on Mr. Cuomo, who resigned in August, but additionally have broken the careers of a rising constellation of highly effective individuals round him.

The exceptional fallout continued on Wednesday when Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN and a longtime media govt, was ousted from his job. His resignation got here after attorneys for Chris Cuomo, who was fired from the community for his position in his brother’s effort, talked about Mr. Zucker’s undisclosed romantic relationship with a colleague as their consumer fought for hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of severance pay.

Some critics of the Cuomos noticed the mounting repercussions because the pure results of the household’s penchant for scorched-earth political warfare.

“They’re recognized to take no prisoners. That is how they combat, and I believe the sensation is, ‘If I’m happening, you’re happening,’” stated Debra Katz, a lawyer representing who represents Charlotte Bennett, one of many girls who accused the previous governor of sexual harassment.

Others who misplaced their jobs after it was disclosed that that they had appeared to assist the previous governor tarnish an accuser included Roberta Kaplan and Tina Tchen, the previous leaders of Time’s Up, the nationwide group based to combat sexual abuse; Alphonso David, the previous president of the Human Rights Marketing campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. rights group; and former Cuomo aides, together with two who resigned from their jobs at an influential public relations agency.

Hank Sheinkopf, a political marketing consultant who has labored in campaigns each aligned with and towards the previous governor, described the rising fallout as a “unhealthy film.”

“Chris Cuomo will get whacked. Then Zucker will get whacked. The careers of 10 to 12 individuals who labored for Andrew Cuomo get destroyed. Public service is out of their image. The innuendo alone is adequate to destroy a life or a profession,” Mr. Sheinkopf stated. “And the query is, the place does it go subsequent?”

By mentioning Mr. Zucker’s relationship of their talks with the community, Mr. Cuomo and his attorneys drew criticism that they had been partaking in the identical combative method that his brother usually employed to keep up a good grip on Albany for greater than a decade.

“If this can be a domino impact that begins with Andrew Cuomo happening from the governor’s workplace, after which Chris Cuomo being fired from CNN, after which Jeff Zucker shedding his job at CNN, that could be a exceptional chain of occasions,” Brian Stelter, the community’s media correspondent, stated on the air Wednesday, including that Chris Cuomo was “not going out quietly” and was maybe “making an attempt to burn the place down.”

A spokesman for Chris Cuomo declined to remark.

Since their downfalls, each Cuomos have continued on forceful crusades to rehabilitate their reputations and search vindication.

The previous governor has sought out former allies for his or her ideas on how he might re-enter public life, even when many of the New York political class, together with voters, seems to have turned the web page on him. (He was seen on Tuesday evening eating in New York Metropolis with Mayor Eric Adams, who had beforehand known as for his resignation, The New York Put up reported).

He nonetheless has a $16 million marketing campaign battle chest, and he has appeared more and more emboldened in emails to supporters after native district attorneys closed investigations into a number of the girls’s claims with out bringing legal prices — although many famous that they had discovered the ladies credible.

“Now we have each intention of combating till the reality comes out — and help others who had been swept up on this clear case of prosecutorial misconduct to do the identical,” Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for the previous governor, stated, referring to the state lawyer normal, Letitia James, who led the investigation into the sexual harassment allegations. Mr. Cuomo has accused her of main a partisan inquiry; Ms. James has denied the accusation.

Chris Cuomo, who was fired in December, has been vigorously contesting the phrases of his exit from CNN. The community has refused to pay his severance or honor the rest of his present contract, arguing that he engaged in unethical conduct.

The previous anchor has enlisted a robust authorized crew, which, in discussions with attorneys for CNN’s mother or father firm, raised the topic of Mr. Zucker’s consensual relationship with Allison Gollust, CNN’s govt vp, who — in a mark of how huge the Cuomo household’s community is — briefly served as Andrew Cuomo’s communications director for 4 months in 2012 and 2013.

For months, Mr. Zucker resisted stress to dismiss the embattled information host, at the same time as objections to his conduct in protection of his brother grew louder.

Considerations started on the top of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, when CNN lifted a rule prohibiting Chris Cuomo from interviewing his brother. On the time, the elder Cuomo’s pandemic information conferences made him a media fixture.

Their on-the-air partnership ended final 12 months, as Andrew Cuomo was confronting a number of scandals and investigations. But it surely was not but public data that Chris Cuomo had joined a bunch serving to his brother bat down sexual-harassment allegations made towards him by a former aide, Lindsey Boylan.

Testimony in Ms. James’ investigation later revealed the tv journalist took half in technique calls with the previous governor and his high aides to debate how to answer the allegations. He additionally reached out to Melissa DeRosa, the previous governor’s high aide, saying he had “a lead” on a girl who accused Mr. Cuomo of grabbing her face and making her really feel uncomfortable at a marriage; and he checked in along with his sources in journalism to ask concerning the standing of damaging tales about his brother.

As a part of the offensive, the previous governor’s high aides additionally enlisted former staffers who had left for the personal sector however had remained trusted allies and appeared keen to assist.

It was that effort — which concerned leaking Ms. Boylan’s personnel file to the press and drafting a never-published op-ed that assailed her character — that had probably the most rapid repercussions for Andrew Cuomo’s inside orbit.

After the lawyer normal’s report detailed the retaliation marketing campaign, among the many first to fall had been Ms. Kaplan, a nationally outstanding lawyer, and Ms. Tchen, each on the high of a corporation meant to combat the sort of sexual abuse and gender inequality that Andrew Cuomo’s critics stated had been on the coronary heart of the allegations towards him.

Some survivors of sexual abuse stated the 2 girls’s involvement in Mr. Cuomo’s protection felt like a betrayal. As stress grew, each Ms. Kaplan and Ms. Tchen stepped down, saying their ties to the previous governor had grow to be a divisive distraction.

Mr. David, who steered edits to the opinion piece and supplied the governor’s aides with a memo about Ms. Boylan’s employment historical past, confronted an analogous outcry from staff and the board of the Human Rights Marketing campaign.

Mr. David, who had labored as a lawyer within the Cuomo administration, has denied wrongdoing. He stated that he was legally obligated to offer the memo and famous he declined to signal onto the op-ed and that he didn’t know the total extent of allegations towards Mr. Cuomo when it was being mentioned.

Nonetheless, he was fired because the group’s president for violating its values, a transfer that he has vowed to combat. On Thursday, Mr. David, the group’s first Black chief, stated he was suing and accused the group’s board of racial discrimination in his termination.

In August, Josh Vlasto, who had served as chief of employees to the previous governor, and Richard Bamberger, his former communications director, left their jobs at Kivvit, a high-profile public relations agency.

The corporate stated on the time that each had aided the previous governor of their private capability, not on behalf of the agency. Mr. Vlasto, in line with testimony from the governor’s high aide, strategized the leaking of Ms. Boylan’s personnel information, whereas Mr. Bamberger was sought out as a intermediary to let sure reporters know concerning the supplies.

Jim Malatras was the chancellor of the state’s public college system when personal textual content messages emerged exhibiting that he had disparaged Ms. Boylan. His messages about Ms. Boylan had been unrelated to her sexual harassment claims and had been despatched 18 months earlier than she went public together with her allegations.

Nonetheless, beneath mounting stress, he resigned in December.

Michael M. Grynbaum and John Koblin contributed reporting.