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Her
departure is the latest move after a network investigation into
the conduct of Chris Cuomo, a primetime CNN anchor fired in
December for allegedly assisting his brother, former New York
Governor Andrew Cuomo, who was accused of sexual misconduct
CNN President Jeff Zucker resigned earlier this month, telling
staff he had failed to disclose a consensual relationship with a
colleague. CNN anchor Brian Stelter said at the time that the
relationship was with Gollust, the chief marketing officer for
the network.
WarnerMedia confirmed Gollust's resignation in a statement.
It said the investigation, performed by an independent law firm
and led by a former federal judge, was concluded over the
weekend. Based on interviews with more than 40 people and a
review of more than 100,000 texts and emails, the investigation
found Zucker, Gollust and Cuomo had violated company policies.
"I realize this news is troubling, disappointing, and frankly,
painful to read. These are valid feelings many of you have,"
Kilar wrote in the memo. "We have the highest standards of
journalistic integrity at CNN, and those rules must apply to
everyone equally. Given the information provided to me in the
investigation, I strongly believe we have taken the right
actions and the right decisions have been made."
In a comment on CNN's online portal, Gollust called
WarnerMedia's statement "deeply disappointing" and "an attempt
to retaliate against me and change the media narrative in the
wake of their disastrous handling of the last two weeks."
A spokesperson issued a statement on behalf of Cuomo in which
the former primetime host claimed Zucker and Gollust were both
aware and "fully supportive" of what he was doing to help his
brother, Andrew Cuomo.
"The still open question is when WarnerMedia is going to release
the results of its investigation and explain its supposed basis
for terminating Mr. Cuomo," the spokesperson said in an emailed
statement.
Zucker could not immediately be reached for comment.
CNN is part of AT&T-owned WarnerMedia, which is being spun off
in a $43 billion transaction with Discovery.
(Reporting by Ken Li, Dawn Chmielewski and Peter Henderson;
Editing by Leslie Adler and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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