A man President Trump recently praised for criticizing former intelligence officials on cable news was fired from a previous job for alleged sexual harassment.
The Washington Post is reporting this evening that CNN contributor Paris Dennard had been fired from his job at Arizona State University in 2014 “for making sexually explicit comments and gestures toward women, according to documents and a university official.”
Dennard was a surrogate for Trump during his presidential campaign and now a member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. He is also someone who has argued that past sexual indiscretions should have no bearing on the Trump presidency.
CNN has taken action against the pro-Trump commentator. A CNN spokesperson tells TVNewser: “We are aware of reports of accusations against Paris Dennard. We are suspending Paris, effective immediately, while we look into the allegations.”
WaPo reports that when Dennard was events director for ASU’s McCain Institute for International Leadership, he told a recent graduate who worked for him that he wanted to have sex with her. He “pretended to unzip his pants in her presence, tried to get her to sit on his lap, and made masturbatory gestures,” according to a university report.
An Arizona State official confirmed the authenticity of the report to The Post, which includes a summary of an interview that investigators conducted with Dennard.
In addition to his work as a CNN contributor, Dennard, 35, is a contributor to the Hill, and regular guest on NPR’s Here & Now.
Trump recently praised Dennard for his performance during an argument with Phil Mudd, a former counter terrorism official with the CIA. Mudd became quite angry during the back-and-forth last Friday on AC 360 when Dennard began accusing officials such as him and former CIA director John Brennan of profiting from their security clearances after leaving government.
Video of the interview posted on CNN’s YouTube page has collected nearly 1.4 million views as of publication time.