Chris Cuomo picks fight with CNN after firing, plans to sue

Former CNN anchor Chris Cuomo is reportedly preparing to sue his former employer if it does not pay him the remainder of his contract.

Sources told The New York Post on Monday that Cuomo has hired lawyers and is getting ready to sue for the remaining three years of the four-year contract he signed last year. At a reported $6 million per year, he would be owed around $18 to $20 million.

CNN has “no intention of paying Cuomo a penny,” an insider told The Post. “If he gets a settlement, there would be an uproar.”

Another source maintained that CNN contracts have a “standard morality clause” which allows the network to fire any employees that do anything of “disrepute.”

Cuomo was fired on Saturday after a law firm concluded that he had misled CNN management about his level of involvement in defending his brother Andrew, the now-former governor of New York, from sexual harassment allegations.

“Chris had been much more deeply involved than we had ever known, and than he’d ever told us,” CNN President Jeff Zucker said during a staff meeting on Monday after the investigation.

The disgraced anchor’s plans came to light after a weekend of tense words between him and his former employer.

On Sunday, a spokesman for Cuomo told the Wall Street Journal that Zucker knew of “the details of Mr. Cuomo’s support for his brother.”

“There were no secrets about this, as other individuals besides Mr. Cuomo can attest,” the spokesman added.

CNN responded bluntly, saying, “He has made a number of accusations that are patently false,” which “reinforces why he was terminated for violating our standards and practices, as well as his lack of candor.

The Daily Beast reported that Cuomo was “livid” about the unexpected firing, according to someone familiar with the matter.