Another original Fox News reporter is leaving to pursue journalism elsewhere

Catherine Herridge, the chief intelligence correspondent at Fox News and one of its founding employees, is leaving the network after 23 years to join CBS News.

The Thursday announcement marked the latest high-profile departure from the news side at Fox, coming just weeks after another founding employee, Shepard Smith, resigned abruptly in the middle of his contract. Tensions between the network's news and opinion divisions in the Trump age are believed to have contributed to Smith's decision to leave.

It's not clear whether the internal strife played a role in Herridge's departure.

"CBS News has always placed a premium on enterprise journalism and powerful investigations," she said in a statement released by CBS. "I feel privileged to join a team where facts and storytelling will always matter."

A former London-based correspondent for ABC News, Herridge joined Fox in 1996 as the network launched. In her most recent role, she covered the intelligence community, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

Herridge's contract with Fox expired during the summer, and while the network wanted to renew it, it understood she might leave, CNN reported. Her last day is Friday.

Fox News did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement released through Fox and obtained by CNN, Herridge thanked Fox magnate Rupert Murdoch "for the opportunity to cover the most impactful stories of the last 23 years, most recently the Special Counsel report and impeachment inquiry. I have received great personal satisfaction from mentoring the next generation of reporters and producers and sharing my journalistic values - that facts matter and enterprise reporting will always win the day."

At CBS, where she'll start in November, Herridge will be a senior investigative correspondent with a focus on national security and intelligence issues.

"Catherine Herridge is a skilled investigative correspondent who has consistently brought depth and originality to her reporting," said Christopher Isham, vice president and Washington bureau chief at CBS News. "We are very excited that she will be joining the outstanding team at the Washington Bureau."

She was already in discussions to move to CBS when Smith resigned, according to CNN.

Smith's announcement that he was resigning, made as he signed off from his show on Oct. 11, stunned even his colleagues. It followed attacks from some of the network's opinion hosts, including a public spat with Tucker Carlson.

Those familiar with Smith’s thinking told The Washington Post that those attacks, combined with his unease over the network’s increasingly Trump-friendly tone, had led to his departure.