Exclusive | Bari Weiss and 60 Minutes boss werent briefed on deportees gay asylum claim ahead of controversial segment: sources

CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and “60 Minutes” boss Nick Bilton were kept in the dark about a deported migrant’s claim on immigration documents that he was gay ahead of a controversial segment that aired on the TV news magazine show last Sunday, The Post has learned.Weiss and Bilton “went ballistic” when they learned from the Department of Homeland Security’s post on X on late Sunday that “60 Minutes” producers ignored information that Moussa Diawara appeared to have claimed he was gay on immigration documents in order to gain asylum in the US, a source close to the situation said.Instead, the program, which aired last Sunday, reported that in 2012, a US judge ruled that Diawara could not be deported to Mali, a Muslim-majority nation, because he “converted to Christianity” eight months earlier.A CBS News source said the segment, which was anchored by newbie contributor Gianna Toboni and produced by veteran Andy Court, intentionally left out the gay claim to “protect him.” A person familiar with the matter added that Court made a deal with Diawari’s lawyer to not mention the gay claim and did not loop in Bilton or any other higher-ups at the show or network.The blowback from the piece prompted Bilton to grill Toboni and Court in a closed-door meeting Thursday, The Post has learned.Sources say the network is weighing disciplinary action or firing Court, a 28-year veteran of the network with a slew of producing awards to his name.According to a copy of DHS’s email obtained by The Post, on Oct.

6 — more than two weeks before the piece aired — DHS replied to several CBS News employees involved in the production telling them that Moussa Diawara, “who is married to a woman he shares two children with, oddly claimed he would be persecuted for homosexuality if returned home to Mali.”A network source told The Post that DHS didn’t “explicitly state he was committing fraud in the email,” adding, “out of consideration for his sa...