Catherine Herridge, a veteran investigative journalist known for her reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop scandal — accused her most recent employer, CBS News, of committing "journalistic rape" and undermining her professional standing by seizing her files following her recent termination.
As reported by the New York Post, Herridge made her statements in testimony at a House Judiciary Committee hearing. The Post said she was breaking her silence for the first time since she and CBS parted ways in February of this year.
"When my records were seized, I felt it was a journalistic rape," Herridge testified at the hearing, titled "Fighting for a Free Press: Protecting Journalists and their Sources."
"When the network of [broadcast journalist] Walter Cronkite seizes your reporting files, including confidential source information, that is an attack on investigative journalism," she added, according to the Post's report.
Herridge, an award-winning journalist, also said taking her files could have put her sources at risk. "CBS News' decision to seize my reporting records crossed a red line that I believe should never be crossed by any media organization," Herridge is quoted as saying. "Multiple sources said they were concerned that by working with me to expose government corruption and misconduct they would be identified and exposed."
Herridge was among 20 CBS News employees let go by parent company Paramount Global amid its larger purge of 800 employees.
Hired by CBS in 2019, the acclaimed journalist had clashed with network execs over her coverage of the Hunter Biden laptop story.
The Post has previously reported that the network insisted in a written response to the House committee that the episode was not an unusual one. CBS has contended no one went through the files and that they were eventually locked inside Herridge's former office in D.C. before a union complaint led to their return.
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