Mike Segar/Reuters
Chris Cuomo has escalated his fight with CNN, alleging in court that the arbitrator tasked with settling his beef with his ex-employer is biased against him.
Cuomo petitioned the New York Supreme Court on Thursday, asking it to remove the arbitration attorney in the former CNN star’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the network, arguing the attorney—Stephen P. Sonnenberg, of mediation firm JAMS—lied when asked if he had any prior attorney-client relationship with those involved in the case.
In his petition, Cuomo alleged he initially had no reason to question Sonnenberg’s impartiality following his appointment in April 2022. But just before a Monday hearing, “following a series of actions by him that indicated a clear bias in favor of CNN,” Cuomo said his attorneys did a deep-dive into Sonnenberg’s background and were “shocked to learn that contrary to his representation in his Disclosure, Sonnenberg did, in fact, have a prior attorney-client relationship with one of the parties, namely CNN.”