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CNN has been rocked with yet another scandal as Jake Tapper’s top producer is out at CNN after "hooking up with a subordinate," Fox News Digital has confirmed.
"The Lead with Jake Tapper" executive producer Federico Quadrani’s firing was first reported by the New York Post and confirmed by two sources close to the situation.
A CNN insider told Fox News Digital that "complaints were made" about Quadrani, and last Wednesday someone brought direct evidence of the inappropriate relationship directly to Tapper. The CNN anchor then went to human resources and informed executives, and his top producer was fired by Friday.
Jake Tapper’s executive producer, Federico Quadrani, was fired from CNN last week after it was discovered he had been romantically involved with a subordinate, according to sources. (Lloyd Bishop/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
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CNN declined comment when reached by Fox News Digital.
The Post referred to Quadrani as Tapper’s "right hand man" who worked with the CNN anchor for a decade. Tapper joined CNN in 2013 after a tenure at ABC News.
Jake Tapper’s top producer is out at CNN after working on "The Lead" for a decade. (Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images)
Quadrani’s dismissal came nearly one year after former CNN president Jeff Zucker was ousted after he failed to disclose his consensual relationship with Allison Gollust, a fellow top CNN executive who left shortly after Zucker. CNN eventually admitted that Zucker also violated standards and practices but the relationship was what was initially credited for the shakeup.
CNN staffers are shocked that a high-powered producer could be so careless, especially after the way the once-beloved Zucker was forced out for a similar offense. One CNN insider rhetorically asked how Quadrani "could be so stupid."
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Quadrani joined CNN in 2013, and is the creator and EP of "The Lead," according to his LinkedIn bio, which airs weekday afternoons. He came to CNN from MSNBC and previously worked at NBC News’ "Today" when Zucker was his boss. The longtime TV news veteran also spent six years at ABC News.
A CNN insider said Jake Tapper informed human resources of his top producer’s inappropriate relationship himself.
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Zucker’s replacement, current CNN CEO Chris Licht, has been on a crusade to rid the network of "spectacle" that plagued the network under previous management. He has parted ways with media correspondent Brian Stelter, CNN's longtime chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin – who Zucker allowed back even after his Zoom masturbation scandal from 2020 – and left-leaning White House correspondent John Harwood.
Ratings issues have plagued Licht’s time on the job and he tabbed Tapper himself to fill the 9 p.m. slot – that has been vacant for over a year -- on at least a temporary basis in the final weeks leading up to the November midterms. While CNN publicly insisted that Tapper's move into primetime was never meant to be permanent, Licht reportedly wanted Tapper to be the "new face" of the network. Tapper told Fox News Digital those reports he was doing a "tryout" of sorts were untrue, and he never intended to do anything but return to his daytime show.
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Fox News Nikolas Lanum and David Rutz contributed to this report.
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