JUST IN: CNN Promotes Laura Coates to Chief Legal Analyst

Photo provided by CNN.

CNN promoted Laura Coates to Chief Legal Analyst, the network announced Friday, crediting her for having “played a central role in the network’s extensive legal programming, serving as an anchor for CNN’s prime time programs, hosting impactful specials and a CNN Town Hall.”

Coates graduated from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and the University of Minnesota Law School and began her legal career in Minnesota and New York, handling intellectual property litigation and First Amendment cases including defamation and media law issues.

She then left private practice to join the United States Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor, according to her CNN biography, serving “as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice during the Bush and Obama administrations, specializing in the enforcement of voting rights throughout the country. She also served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, prosecuting a myriad of violent felony offenses including drug trafficking, armed offenses, domestic violence, child abuse, and sexual assault.”

She joined CNN in 2016 and previously held the title of Senior Legal Analyst, providing key commentary and analysis during the network’s coverage of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Jan. 6 hearings, former President Donald Trump’s impeachment hearings, the trial of former Milwaukee police officer Derek Chauvin, the George Floyd protests, the Alex Murdaugh trial, and the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

In January, Coates began anchoring CNN’s 11 pm news hour, and the network said she “will continue filling in as an anchor across CNN programming.” She also hosts an award-winning daily show on SiriusXM’s bipartisan POTUS channel, “The Laura Coates Show,” and is a New York Times bestselling author for her 2022 book, Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight For Fairness.

CNN’s PR department tweeted the announcement of Coates’ promotion.

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