Reports released Wednesday suggest that Jake Tapper’s executive producer, Federico Quadrani, was fired in early February for an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate.
Sources claimed that Quadrani was released from his position for “hooking up with” a senior producer at the network, PageSix reported. Apparently news of the alleged relationship and firing is spreading rapidly throughout CNN, a source told the PageSix, warning that “it’s going to get out.”
Sources noted that Quadrani was already under a human resources “investigation of sorts,” over the relationship. “There were some complaints. No one had proof, and these things are hard to prove. Jake was aware of the investigation,” another source told PageSix.
Class photo of @TheLeadCNN team! pic.twitter.com/LWREHuRGdT
— Federico S. Quadrani (@FQuadrani) April 4, 2013
Just as Quadrani was about to be cleared in the investigation, Tapper was reportedly “presented with something that he couldn’t ignore” on Feb. 8, and Quadrani was fired by Feb 10, according to PageSix. “Jake was made aware of it and acted quickly. Someone discovered something accidentally, and brought it to Tapper. He delivered it to [human resources], and they were terminated,” one of the sources told the outlet. (RELATED: Only One Man Can Save CNN)
Colleagues are reportedly shocked by the situation, with one of the sources saying Quadrani and the producer are “consenting adults and no one’s particularly feeling like this is some big scandal,” according to PageSix
Another CNN insider confirmed the information in PageSix to Fox News Digital, adding that “complaints were made” about Quadrani in the last week. The news comes almost exactly a year after former CNN President Jeff Zucker left the organization following a “consensual relationship with [his] closest colleague.” CNN did not immediately return a request for comment.