The House Judiciary Committee asked CBS News on Friday to provide the committee with records related to the network’s recent termination of journalist Catherine Herridge after accusations surfaced that her now-former employer inappropriately seized her belongings when she left.
The committee requested in a letter to CBS News President Ingrid Ciprian-Matthews that she provide lawmakers with a briefing about the events surrounding Herridge’s exit, as well as provide them with certain internal company communications about it by March 1.
Herridge, a journalist of over 25 years, worked at Fox News until 2019 before becoming a senior investigative correspondent at CBS News.
She has gained prominence in recent years for amplifying Republicans’ efforts to investigate the Biden family. However, she began making headlines more recently after a judge signaled he may soon hold her in civil contempt of court for refusing to disclose sources related to reporting she did at Fox News on a scientist’s alleged ties to the Chinese military.
Herridge was among a small batch of employees CBS News laid off this month. Her termination alone was jolting because of her notoriety, but George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley revealed in an op-ed that the nature of her exit was “unusual” and had raised alarms internally.
“Many of us were shocked after Herridge was included in layoffs this month, but those concerns have increased after CBS officials took the unusual step of seizing her files, computers and records, including information on privileged sources,” Turley wrote.
Turley added that an unnamed former CBS News manager said the network typically would “box up everything from cups to post-its for departing reporters” and that “holding [Herridge’s] material was ‘outrageous’ and clearly endangered confidential sources.”
It is unclear at this stage what materials CBS News may have retained that would have been an atypical move for the network, and it is also unclear if any of the material was related to confidential sources Herridge used for her reporting or if it had any connection to her ongoing contempt litigation.
CBS News disputed the notion that it had taken possession of any of Herridge’s documents in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner.
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The network stated it already returned Herridge’s personal items to her and was “prepared to” pack up “the rest of her files” as soon as Herridge responded to her former employer to work out logistics.
“Contrary to some reporting, CBS News did not seize any of Catherine Herridge’s files,” the statement read. “Ms. Herridge’s personal belongings were delivered to her home one week ago, and we are prepared to pack up the rest of her files immediately on her behalf – with her union representative present as she requested. We have respected her request to not go through the files, and out of our concern for confidential sources, the office she occupied has remained secure since her departure.”
