Chris Cuomo wants CNN to pay up.
The former news anchor — who was fired in December 2021 by the network's then-president Jeff Zucker over his alleged involvement with his brother Andrew Cuomo's sexual misconduct scandal—has fired back with an arbitration claim that seeks $125 million for loss of wages and damage to the anchor's reputation.
"As a result of [Turner Broadcasting System's] indefensible choice to unceremoniously fire him, Cuomo has been damaged in countless ways," state documents filed March 15 by Cuomo's attorneys at Freedman + Taitelman LLP and Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder LLP. "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.
According to the documents, the $125 million figure includes not only the remaining salary owed under his contract with the network, but "future wages lost as a result of CNN's efforts to destroy his reputation."
The filing also accuses Zucker and CNN of not only failing to instruct all of the network's employees not to disparage Cuomo, but of openly criticizing the fallen news star themselves, also allegedly forbidden by the contract.
"It should by now be obvious that Chris Cuomo did not lie to CNN about helping his brother," lawyer Bryan Freedman told Deadline on Mach 16. "In fact, as the limited information released from WarnerMedia's investigation makes clear, CNN's highest-level executives not only knew about Chris's involvement in helping his brother but also actively assisted the Governor, both through Chris and directly themselves."
Freedman continued, "The legal action filed today makes clear that CNN wrongfully terminated Chris and further violated the express terms of his employment agreement by allowing its employees to disparage him. Chris is owed a full apology from those responsible."
CNN spokesperson James Anderson had no comment when contacted by NBC News.
The Cuomo Prime Time host, 51, was let go by the network on Dec. 4 after "additional information" was revealed during an internal investigation into how he helped his brother and former New York Governor deal with sexual misconduct allegations. "Chris Cuomo was suspended earlier this week pending further evaluation of new information that came to light about his involvement with his brother's defense," CNN said in a statement to E! News at the time. "We retained a respected law firm to conduct the review, and have terminated him, effective immediately."
The statement continued, "While in the process of that review, additional information has come to light. Despite the termination, we will investigate as appropriate."
Later that day, the journalist broke his silence on the firing, telling E! News in a statement, "This is not how I want my time at CNN to end but I have already told you why and how I helped my brother."
According to CNN, Cuomo had previously "admitted" to the network that he had indeed "offered advice" to his brother's team.
"He broke our rules and we acknowledged that publicly," CNN stated. "But we also appreciated the unique position he was in and understood his need to put family first and job second."
Andrew Cuomo, meanwhile, resigned as the governor of New York in August 2021.
Amid the fallout, Cuomo ended his SiriusXM radio show, Let's Get After It With Chris Cuomo and lost his lucrative book deal with William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.