Matt Lauer‘s lawyers are reportedly trying to get him a $30 million payoff after NBC News fired the long-time Today Show anchor for alleged sexual harassment.
Sources close to Lauer told Page Six that his lawyers are trying to get the 59-year-old the rest of his $20 million annual contract. He was still signed through the next year and a half.
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“They are currently looking at his contract and determining whether the claims against him, which clearly would affect any moral clause in his contract and his ensuing termination would cut off his contractual rights to be paid through to the end of his contract,” a source told Page Six.
The last time NBC and Lauer were at the negotiating table was 2016, when he signed a $20 million annual deal through 2018.
Page Six reports that the typical TV contract includes a moral clause to give a company the right to fire without pay. A TV insider told the site that there was “no way” Lauer would get paid.
“There has been an irrevocable breach of Matt’s contract, there is a moral clause that says if he brings the company into disrepute โ which he clearly has โ NBC can terminate his employment immediately without pay and they do not have to pay out his contract,” the insider said.
Lauer was seen outside his $33 million Hamptons estate on Thursday, meeting with criminal lawyer Eddie Burke Jr. Burke was seen handing Lauer an envelope.
Burke is well-known for representing then-Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd when he faced a misdemeanor drunk-driving charge in 2012. Kidd later pleaded guilty to the charge, as CNN reported at the time.