Report details an ABC News temp's sexual assault allegation against Chris Cuomo

The New York Times

Shortly after Cuomo's firing from CNN in December, attorney Debra S. Katz released a statement saying she had contacted CNN days before on behalf of a client who alleged "sexual misconduct" on Cuomo's part. The New York Times now reports that, in 2011, the unnamed woman was a "young temporary ABC employee hoping for a full-time job. One day, after Mr. Cuomo, an anchor, had offered her career advice, he invited her to lunch in his office, according to the letter, interviews with the woman and emails between her and Mr. Cuomo. When she arrived, there was no food. Instead, Mr. Cuomo badgered her for sex, and after she declined, he assaulted her, she said. She ran out of the room. Later that day, the woman, who was still seeking a job, tried to smooth things over by writing Mr. Cuomo friendly emails. The Times interviewed five friends and former colleagues who said the woman told them Mr. Cuomo had made unwelcome sexual requests. She said that only in the past year did she begin to tell people that Mr. Cuomo had also assaulted her, which she hadn’t previously divulged because it was private and painful. The encounter in Mr. Cuomo’s office at ABC was not the end of her story." Years later at the height of the #MeToo movement of 2017/2018, the woman said Cuomo contacted her out of the blue and offered to make amends by doing a CNN segment about the company she worked for. The woman tried to avoid contact with Cuomo, but CNN showed the segment anyway. “After years without any substantive communication from Mr. Cuomo whatsoever, Ms. Doe suspected he was concerned about her coming forward publicly with her allegations and wanted to use the proposed segment as an opportunity to ‘test the waters’ and discourage her from going on the record about his sexual misconduct,” Katz wrote. Katz added that the woman, who has been “deeply traumatized,” doesn’t want to become “a pawn in an internecine war between Zucker, Chris Cuomo and CNN” and won’t be saying anything further. She “deserves and requests privacy,”