Chris Cuomo Hits Back At CNN “Smear Campaign” With $125M Arbitration Demand

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: After months of legal anticipation after his December 2021 firing by Jeff Zucker, Chris Cuomo has just launched the official opening salvo in what looks to be protracted battle with CNN for not only $125 million in cash, but his character and family drama as well.“As a result of Turner’s indefensible choice to unceremoniously fire him, Cuomo has been damaged in countless ways,” states a demand for arbitration filed Wednesday from Cuumo’s Freedman + Taitelman LLP and Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder LLP attorneys.“Cuomo has had his journalistic integrity unjustifiably smeared, making it difficult if not impossible for Cuomo to find similar work in the future and damaging him in amounts exceeding $125 million, which includes not only the remaining salary owed under the Agreement, but future wages lost as a result of CNN’s efforts to destroy his reputation in violation of the Agreement,” the filing adds. “Cuomo now seeks to recover the full measure of his damages against Turner and CNN,” it declares.That $125 million breaks down into “consequential damages” of no less than $110 million out of the alleged “Turner and CNN’s breach of the express terms of the Agreement.” The additional $15 million is essentially what Cuomo and his attorneys say remained due to him under his current contract when he was terminated “effective immediately” on December 4 by then CNN president Zucker after claims of sexual misconduct were made against the already suspended host.The CNN avalanche of late with the fumbled firing and payout of Zucker and then ex-PR and marketing exec Allison Gollust, plus talent tub-thumping and incoming Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s selection of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert EP Chris