Jeff Zeleny, ABC News senior Washington correspondent, will join CNN’s Washington bureau and political unit as CNN senior Washington correspondent next Monday to cover the 2016 presidential race for both television and digital, according to industry sources.
The papers were signed Monday, letting Zeleny out of his ABC contract. ABC News President James Goldston and CNN Washington Bureau Chief Sam Feist plan a joint announcement later Tuesday morning. CNN poached Zeleny, 41, because he has become a polished on-air correspondent and can also write long-form pieces for CNN.com.
Jeff — a native of Exeter, Nebraska — sprinted from Lincoln Journal Star to The Des Moines Register to the Chicago Tribune (where he covered home-state Sen. Barack Obama) to The New York Times to ABC. He is covering his fifth presidential campaign.
Robert Barnett was the lawyer for the deal.
