Former “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley accused CBS News chief Bari Weiss of tilting coverage in favor of how Donald Trump characterized immigration protests in Minnesota, including the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Pretti and Good were U.S. citizens who were fatally shot in separate incidents by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis during a massive immigration enforcement crackdown. Both killings sparked major local protests and intense political backlash against the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

In his first interview since being fired last week, Pelley said Weiss put her thumb on the scale to ensure CBS’s coverage aligned with the White House narrative.

“There was a thumb on the scale for the president’s version of events that I felt was a level of political influence that I had never seen in 37 years at CBS News,” Pelley told The New York Times.

Pelley said that Weiss sent notes requesting that a ’60 Minutes’ segment that was already approved for broadcast portray protesters as more violent, and another telling them to describe Good as running over an ICE agent. A Times analysis reveals that was not the case.

“Two of the things in the email include, can we make the protesters look more violent? Now, I’m paraphrasing. I don’t have the quote, but that’s what was communicated to me,” Pelley said. “And the other thing, Renee Good’s car. You need to describe her as driving toward the officer.”

Pelley said he and his producer had already included footage showing protesters behaving violently, including confrontations with law enforcement. He said they also reviewed video of the shooting involving Good and concluded it did not support the characterization Weiss wanted to include in the piece.

According to Pelley, no changes were made based on Weiss’ notes.

A CBS spokesperson denied Pelley’s claims. The spokesperson claimed that Weiss made a few points during the editorial back-and-forth, and they were not political.

“They had no political motivation and were proposed solely to make the piece as strong, fair, and accurate as possible,” the statement said. “As is frequently the case in any newsroom that operates with collaboration, not everything she raised made it into the final piece.”

In a statement after his firing, Pelley revealed that he was told to inject lies and bias into politically sensitive stories by management at CBS “to curry a moment of favor with the Trump administration.”

“New management has instructed me to inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story,” he added. “I’ve been told to include assertions that are unverified. To date, in every case, I have managed to ignore these instructions or refuse them. Recently, politicians have been invited to choose correspondents for interviews on the broadcast. Giving politicians control over 60 Minutes interviews is not how this is done. Finally, incompetence and unprofessionalism in the new management have wreaked havoc.”