'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
A woman who lodged a sexual harassment allegation against former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was "disgusted" by what she saw as his hypocrisy and attempts to discredit women who made similar allegations against his brother, her lawyer said Sunday.
The woman's complaint became known shortly after CNN fired the "Cuomo Prime Time" anchor Saturday night. Chris Cuomo had been criticized for breaching journalistic ethics by trying to help his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, beat his own harassment charges.
The woman, who has chosen to remain anonymous, took her allegations against Chris Cuomo to CNN on Wednesday through her lawyer, Debra Katz.
Katz did not give any specifics about the alleged behavior, believed to have occurred before Cuomo joined CNN in 2013. Prior to that, he worked at ABC News.
Chris Cuomo, through a spokesman, said the charges were untrue. "If the goal in making these false and unvetted accusations was to see Mr. Cuomo punished by CNN, that may explain his unwarranted termination," the spokesman said.
Katz also tied Cuomo's firing to the accusations, saying in a statement that "CNN acted promptly on my client's complaint and fired Mr. Cuomo."
CNN suspended Cuomo on Tuesday after learning through documents released by New York's attorney general that his actions in support of his brother were more extensive than previously known. A law firm was hired by CNN to look into Cuomo's actions, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, then determined the network had cause to fire him.
With the new misconduct allegations, the network had little taste for another investigation and CNN chief Jeff Zucker informed Cuomo of the firing on Saturday.
Katz said in Sunday's statement that her client was motivated by Cuomo's statements, regarding allegations against his brother, that he cared deeply and profoundly about issues of sexual misconduct. The woman also believed that Cuomo "played an active role in attempting to smear women" who had accused his brother, she said.
"Hearing the hypocrisy of Chris Cuomo's on-air words and disgusted by his efforts to try to discredit these women, my client retained counsel to report his serious sexual misconduct to CNN," the lawyer said.
The new misconduct allegation comes after a veteran TV executive, Shelley Ross, wrote a column for The New York Times in September saying Chris Cuomo had groped her at a party 16 years ago, when they both worked for ABC News. Cuomo told the newspaper "I apologized to her then, and I meant it."
In responding to criticism of his actions regarding his brother, Cuomo has said that he was simply trying to help him -- telling his CNN audience shortly after Andrew Cuomo resigned in August that "it's never easy being in this business and coming from a political family."
"I never attacked, nor encouraged anyone to attack, any woman who came forward," Cuomo said on the air. "I never made calls to the press about my brother's situation."
However, in an email from last March newly released by the New York attorney general, Cuomo told one of his brother's aides that "I have a lead on the wedding girl." It was in reference to a woman who said in news reports she was uncomfortable with how the governor touched her when they met at a wedding.
Chris Cuomo, in testimony to Attorney General Letitia James' investigators, explained that a "source" had called him and suggested that maybe the accuser had "been put up to" making the accusation. He relayed that to his brother's aides, however they told him the woman had made her discomfort known soon after it happened.
Cuomo also testified to investigators -- a month before he told CNN viewers he had not called the press about his brother's situation -- that he had reached out privately to media figures to find out if there would be other accusers.
Cuomo has said he never tried to influence his own network's coverage of his brother's problems, and no evidence has emerged that he did.
His firing leaves a hole in CNN's weeknight lineup. Even while competing in the same time slot with industry heavyweights Sean Hannity on Fox News Channel and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, Cuomo was generally the most-watched personality on CNN.
Michael Smerconish will substitute for him this week.
------
Associated Press reporter David Porter contributed to this report.
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Hospital chaplain J.S. Park opens up about death, grief and hearing thousands of last words, and shares his advice for the living.
The World Health Organization is likely to issue a wider warning about contaminated Johnson and Johnson-made children's cough syrup found in Nigeria last week, it said in an email.
Police have released video footage of a dramatic takedown of a group of teens wanted in connection with an attempted carjacking in Markham earlier this month.
Canada called for 'all parties' to de-escalate rising tensions in the Mideast following an apparent Israeli drone attack against Iran overnight.
A woman who recently moved to Canada from India was searching for a job when she got caught in an online job scam and lost $15,000.
More money will land in the pockets of some Canadian families on Friday for the latest Canada Child Benefit installment.
The World Health Organization and around 500 experts have agreed for the first time on what it means for a disease to spread through the air, in a bid to avoid the confusion early in the COVID-19 pandemic that some scientists have said cost lives.
American millionaire Jonathan Lehrer, one of two men charged in the killings of a Canadian couple in Dominica, has been denied bail.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.