By Associated Press
“When asked, I would reach out to sources, other journalists, to see if they had heard of anybody else coming out,” Chris Cuomo said in the July deposition.
In one instance, Chris Cuomo said he called a journalist who regularly worked with reporter Ronan Farrow to get information about Farrow’s upcoming article, and didn’t tell anyone at CNN what he was doing. He let DeRosa know the article wasn’t ready for publication yet.
In a March 10 text message, Chris Cuomo lashed out at DeRosa, accusing her of keeping information from his brother after the Albany Times-Union published an interview with an accuser.
“Stop hiding s— ,” Chris Cuomo wrote. “We are making mistakes we can’t afford.”
Asked in his deposition about that text, Chris Cuomo explained he was telling her: “Don’t not tell Andrew things.”
“There were conversations that he wasn’t a part of that I thought it was important for him to stay very locked in on these,” Chris Cuomo testified.
Among this latest batch of investigative materials released by James’ office is a video of Andrew Cuomo’s deposition from July — a transcript was made public about three weeks ago — and transcripts or videos of interviews with several Cuomo aides and advisers.
James’ office said it didn’t initially release these because local prosecutors were reviewing them for potential criminal conduct. After a criminal complaint was filed against Cuomo last month, giving him access to the materials through discovery, James’ office said it would make them public “in an effort to provide full transparency.”
The releases were being done on a rolling basis — first with transcripts of the former governor and accusers on Nov. 10 and Monday with his brother, aides and other figures — to allow time for redactions to protect individual privacy, James’ office said.
DeRosa, in her interview released Monday, recalled confronting Andrew Cuomo during a car ride about the allegations. She told investigators that after one accuser came forward, they decided Cuomo would no longer be left alone with junior staff.
Asked about her exchanges with Chris Cuomo, DeRosa testified: “I talked to Chris pretty regularly. He was on some calls that we did, and he advised us on how to respond.”