Chris Cuomo offered to use ‘sources’ to help brother respond to sex scandal, transcripts reveal

A 169 page trove of documents released Monday detailed the scope of the anchor’s involvement in strategy talks

Newly released transcripts suggest CNN anchor Chris Cuomo may have been more deeply involved in his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's, response to the sexual misconduct allegations that led to his resignation, even offering to use his "sources" to find information on accusers.

The transcripts, released on Monday, suggest Chris Cuomo was looped in on strategy emails and had a more hands-on role in his brother's response to the numerous sexual misconduct allegations he faced at the end of his term.

According to the documented exchanges, Chris Cuomo said he regularly spoke with his brother and the governor's top advisers as they devised strategies for responding to the scandals. The Associated Press reports that Chris Cuomo also offered to use his "sources" to help determine whether or not more women were going to make accusations against the former governor.

In August, New York Attorney General Letitia James' report on the governor's sex scandal revealed that his brother had been offering him advice. Chris Cuomo later admitted that doing so was a "mistake”.

However, the recent trove of 169 pages of transcripts released by investigators showed that Mr Cuomo was intimately involved in the strategy discussions, sometimes sparring with the governor's aides over the way they were handling the investigation.

“I was worried that this wasn’t being handled the right way, and it’s not my job to handle it, okay?” Chris Cuomo said in a video testimony. “I don’t work for the governor. I’m not defending him in this matter. I’m not covering it. You know, this is — this is not what I do.”

“I am worried about my brother and worried that this is being handled the best way it can. And my feeling was that, to my basic mantra, you need to tell the truth and get in front of these if you have something to say. And if you have something to own, you need to do that as well,” he said.

In one text exchange, Chris Cuomo told Melissa DeRosa, Andrew Cuomo’s top aide, that he “has a lead on the wedding girl”, likely a reference to Anne Ruch, who accused the governor of becoming “aggressive” toward her during a wedding in 2019.

Chris Cuomo defended himself as a journalist by saying he never reported on his brother's scandal and never tried to influence the network's coverage of the investigation or allegations.

"I tried to do the right thing," he said in August.