Did various leaders of major companies and public figures resign or get fired on the first day of the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was multimillionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's girlfriend and alleged co-conspirator? Not for the most part: Although former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down on November 29, 2021, the same day as the start of the trial, other corporate leaders -- and CNN anchor Chris Cuomo -- did not leave their positions that day.
The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) published on December 1, 2021. It featured a screenshot of a tweet that read:
On the 1st day of Maxwell's trial...
The CEO of twitter resigned
The CFO of CNBC resigned
The CFO of Walmart resigned
The CFO of Goldman Sachs resigned
Chris Cuomo was fired from CNN
This is what the post looked like on Facebook on December 1, 2021:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Dec 1 19:54 2021 UTC)
This fact check will address the post's claims one by one:
Twitter: Jack Dorsey did tweet about his resignation as CEO of Twitter, effective immediately, on November 29, 2021. In an email to employees that he posted to his Twitter account, he said that as a founder of the company, he does not believe that a "founder-led" philosophy still works for the popular social media platform. Despite Dorsey's resignation and the start of Maxwell's trial occurring on the same day, Lead Stories did not find any indication of a link of any kind between Dorsey and the Maxwell case.
CNBC: According to its website, CNBC, a business and finance news channel owned by NBCUniversal, does not have a chief financial officer within its leadership team. Lead Stories reached out to NBCUniversal about the claim and will update this fact check with any response.
Walmart: On November 29, 2021, Walmart did announce that its current CFO Brett Biggs would transition from his position. However, unlike the claim's suggestion, Biggs will stay on as CFO of the company until a successor is named in 2022. He will officially leave the company on January 31, 2023.
Goldman Sachs: The CFO of Goldman Sachs did not resign on November 29, 2021. On September 14, 2021, Goldman Sachs released a statement saying that Denis Coleman III would take on the role of CFO at the firm starting January 1, 2022. Stephen M. Scherr, who is the firm's CFO at the time of writing, will still be involved as a senior director, although he will retire from the firm at the end of January 2022. Goldman Sachs did not publish any statements about the CFO position on the first day of the Maxwell trial.
CNN/Chris Cuomo: Anchor Chris Cuomo was not fired from CNN. The network reported that Cuomo was suspended "indefinitely" on November 30, 2021, a day after the start of the Maxwell trial. The move came after the revelation that Cuomo was more involved than previously known in the defense of his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, against sexual misconduct allegations.
