Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases

Harvey Weinstein and his brother, Bob Weinstein, formed the film production company Miramax and led the company from 1979 to 2005.^[8] That company was purchased by The Walt Disney Company in June 1993,^[9] though the Weinsteins continued to run the company until September 2005, when they left the company^[10] to run The Weinstein Company (TWC),^[11] which they had founded in March.^[12]

Rumors of Harvey Weinstein's "casting couch" practices (soliciting sexual favors from a job applicant in exchange for employment) circulated in Hollywood for years, and entertainment figures at times alluded to them. As early as 1998, Gwyneth Paltrow said on Late Show with David Letterman that Weinstein "will coerce you to do a thing or two".^[13] In 2005, Courtney Love advised young actresses in an interview, "If Harvey Weinstein invites you to a private party in the Four Seasons, don't go."^[14] In 2010, an article titled "Harvey's Girls"^[15] for Pajiba alluded to Weinstein's "casting couch" reputation: "Every few years, Harvey picks a new girl as his pet." In 2012, a character on the TV series 30 Rock said: "I'm not afraid of anyone in show business: I turned down intercourse with Harvey Weinstein on no less than three occasions – out of five." While announcing the 2013 nominees for the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award, Seth MacFarlane joked: "Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein."^[13] After the allegations were published, director Quentin Tarantino said that he had known about Weinstein harassing actresses for decades, and had confronted him about it.^[16] Ivana Lowell wrote in her book Why Not Say What Happened?, published in 2010, about misbehavior by Weinstein when she worked for the books division of Miramax. The incidents described were in her office when she was alone with Harvey Weinstein, and in her home when a female friend of hers was present. She wrote that she "knew about Harvey's reputation as a womanizer; tales of his trying to seduce every young actress in town were infamous".^[17]

Journalists wrote or attempted to write about Weinstein's alleged behavior. David Carr found that no one allegedly assaulted by Weinstein would speak on the record; Ken Auletta and his editors decided he could not mention an assault allegation without cooperation from the victim.^[18] In 2015, Jordan Sargent wrote in his Gawker article "Tell Us What You Know About Harvey Weinstein's 'Open Secret'"^[19] that "rumors of the powerful producer leveraging his industry power for sexual satisfaction—consensual or otherwise—have tended to remain unaired, confined to hushed conversation and seedier gossip-blog comment threads."^[13] The New York Times later wrote that Weinstein had built a "wall of invulnerability", in part through his support of leading Democratic politicians. He boasted being friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. The Clintons continued longstanding close relationships with him despite alleged warnings about Weinstein to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign from Lena Dunham and Tina Brown.^[18]

In 2015, The New York Times reported that Weinstein was questioned by police "after a 22-year-old woman accused him of touching her inappropriately".^[20] The woman, Italian model Ambra Gutierrez, cooperated with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to obtain an audio recording where Weinstein admitted to having inappropriately touched her.^[21] As the police investigation progressed and became public, tabloids published negative stories about Gutierrez that portrayed her as an opportunist.^[22][23] American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer, allegedly agreed to help suppress the allegations by Gutierrez and Rose McGowan.^[18] Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. decided not to file charges against Weinstein, citing insufficient evidence of criminal intent,^[23] against the advice of local police who considered the evidence sufficient.^[24] The New York district attorney's office and the NYPD blamed each other for failing to bring charges.^[24]

In July 2018, after many allegations and criminal charges of sexual misconduct, Greek journalist Taki Theodoracopulos said to The Spectator that his friend Weinstein told him in an interview, "Yes, I did offer them [girls] acting jobs in exchange for sex, but so did and still does everyone."^[25] Weinstein's lawyer later said he had been present, and Weinstein did not make that statement. Theodoracopulos stated he "may have misrepresented" Weinstein.^[26] Weinstein's quotes and some of the author's observations were later removed from the article which only appeared on the magazine's website.^[27]

Substantial allegations of sexual misconduct by Weinstein were first reported by The New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey on October 5, 2017. The story accused Weinstein of three decades of sexually harassing and paying eight settlements to actresses and female production assistants, temps, and other employees who worked at Miramax and TWC.^[23][28] The investigation, which came on the heels of a successful exposé of Bill O'Reilly by The New York Times, had taken roughly five months.^[29]

Five days later, on October 10, longtime NBC News correspondent Ronan Farrow reported in The New Yorker further allegations that Weinstein had sexually assaulted or harassed 13 women, and raped three.^[30] Farrow said he had wanted to break the story months earlier with NBC, but implied the network was under pressure not to publish,^[31] which NBC denied.^[32] According to Farrow, 16 former or current executives and assistants connected with Weinstein said they had witnessed or had been informed of Weinstein's non-consensual sexual advances to women. Four actresses relayed their suspicion that, after rejecting Weinstein's advances and complaining about him, he had them removed from projects or persuaded others to remove them. A number of Farrow's sources said Weinstein had referred to his success in planting stories in the media about individuals who had crossed him. The New Yorker also published the 2015 audio recording in which Weinstein admits to groping Gutierrez.^[30]

In November 2017, Farrow reported that Weinstein had, through the lawyer David Boies, employed private intelligence agencies Kroll and Black Cube and private investigator Jack Palladino to spy on and influence Weinstein's alleged victims as well as Kantor, Twohey, Farrow and other reporters who were investigating Weinstein. He took these actions, according to Farrow, to prevent his sexual conduct from becoming public.^[18][33][34]

Since the initial reporting in 2017, over 80 women^[35] accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault or rape. In November 2017, a group of the alleged victims, led by Italian actress Asia Argento, released a list of over 100 alleged instances of sexual abuse by Weinstein.^[36][37] The incidents in the list date from 1980 to 2015 and include eighteen allegations of rape.^[36]

According to the women's reports, Weinstein invited young actresses or models into a hotel room or office on the pretext of discussing their career, and then he demanded massages or sex.^[38] He told them that complying with his demands would help their careers and repeatedly used Gwyneth Paltrow as an example, telling them that she had had sex with him, unbeknownst to the actress. Paltrow had rebuffed his propositions, but he told multiple young actresses that she had slept with him as a "weapon" to pressure them into complying with his demands.^[18]

Former colleagues and collaborators of Weinstein told reporters that these activities were enabled by employees, associates and agents who set up these meetings, as well as lawyers and publicists who suppressed complaints with payments and threats.^[38] Bob Weinstein, for example, was allegedly involved in three settlements with accusers, the first in 1990. One Miramax executive reported being harassed by Weinstein after being promoted and praised by him; she and other employees allegedly found that the HR department protected Weinstein more than they did his employees.^[18]

Sexual harassment or assault

Weinstein has sexually assaulted at least three women. He was convicted in 2020 of raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann and sexually assaulting Miriam Haley,^[3] a production assistant.^[39] In 2022, he was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting an unnamed woman^[5] who later revealed herself to be Evgeniya Chernyshova, a model and actor living in Italy.^[40]

Women who said they had been sexually harassed or assaulted by Weinstein include:^[41]

Rape

Weinstein has raped at least two women, having been convicted of raping Jessica Mann^[3] and an unnamed woman, later revealed to be Evgeniya Chernyshova.^[5][40] Women who have accused Weinstein of rape include:

1. Lysette Anthony told British police in October 2017 that Weinstein raped her in the late 1980s at her home in London.^[120]
2. Asia Argento told The New Yorker that in 1997, Weinstein invited her into a hotel room, "pulled her skirt up, forced her legs apart, and performed oral sex on her as she repeatedly told him to stop".^[30]
3. Wedil David, an actress, said that in 2016, Harvey Weinstein raped her in a Beverly Hills hotel room.^[56]
4. Paz de la Huerta said Weinstein had raped her on two separate occasions in November and December 2010.^[57]
5. Lucia Evans said, after a business meeting in 2004, Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him.^[30]
6. Hope Exiner d'Amore, a former employee of Weinstein, said he raped her during a business trip to New York in the late 1970s.^[49]
7. Miriam "Mimi" Haleyi, a production crew member, said Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in his New York City apartment in 2006 when she was in her twenties.^[121]
8. Dominique Huett said Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her and then carried out another sexual act in front of her.^[122]
9. Natassia Malthe said in 2008, Weinstein barged into her London hotel room at night and raped her.^[89][123]
10. Rose McGowan wrote on Twitter that she told the Amazon Studios head Roy Price that Weinstein had raped her, but Price ignored this and continued collaborating with Weinstein.^[124] Price later resigned from his post following sexual harassment allegations against him.^[125]
11. Annabella Sciorra said that, in the early 1990s, Weinstein forced himself into her apartment, shoved her onto her bed and raped her.^[73][126]
12. Melissa Thompson, a tech entrepreneur, told Sky News Weinstein raped her in his hotel room following a business meeting in 2011.^{[127][128][129]}
13. Wende Walsh, model and aspiring actress said that when she was working as a waitress at an Elmwood Avenue bar in the late 1970s, Weinstein begged her for a ride and then once inside the car, he sexually assaulted her.^[85][117]
14. An unnamed woman told The New Yorker that Weinstein invited her into a hotel room on a pretext, and "forced himself on [her] sexually" despite her protests.^[30]
15. An anonymous woman who works in the film industry says in a civil claim she filed in the U.K. in November 2017 that he sexually assaulted her several times sometime after 2000.^[85]
16. An unnamed Canadian actress says he sexually assaulted her in 2000. She filed suit against him in 2017.^[85]
17. An unnamed actress sued Weinstein for sexual battery and assault, alleging that in 2016 he forced her into sex.^[130]

In response to The New York Times report in 2017, Weinstein said: "I appreciate the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it." He said he was due to take a sabbatical and was working with therapists to "deal with this issue head on".^[28] His consulting lawyer, Lisa Bloom, described him as "an old dinosaur learning new ways". Bloom was criticized for her handling of Weinstein's defense and ended her involvement for Weinstein on October 7, 2017.^[131] Two days later, Weinstein hired public relations company Sitrick and Company, which specializes in crisis PR;^[132] they dropped Weinstein as a client on April 3, 2018.^[133] Weinstein's attorney Charles Harder, who was then known for filing the suit that bankrupted Gawker, said his client would be suing The New York Times,^[134] but by October 15, 2017, Harder was no longer working for Weinstein.^[135]

In response to the report in The New Yorker, a spokesperson for Weinstein said:^[30]

Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances ... Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.

Subsequent reports and accusations of rape were likewise met with the response that "any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein."^[49]

On January 30, 2018, Weinstein's attorney released private emails from Ben Affleck and Jill Messick, Rose McGowan's former manager, that both contradicted McGowan's version of the incident.^[136][137] On February 7, 2018, Messick committed suicide.^[138] Both the released emails and McGowan's own accusations against Messick led to increased negative public and media attention towards Messick, including cyberbullying.^[139] Messick's family blamed Weinstein, McGowan, the media and the public for her death.^[140]

In March 2018, Weinstein's lawyer Benjamin Brafman said in an interview with The Times (UK): "The casting couch in Hollywood was not invented by Harvey Weinstein. … If a woman decides that she needs to have sex with a Hollywood producer to advance her career and actually does it and finds the whole thing offensive, that's not rape." Addressing these women, Brafman said, "You made a conscious decision that you're willing to do something that is personally offensive in order to advance your career."^[141]

Writers from The Michigan Daily and Quartz described Weinstein's defense as gaslighting for orchestrating extraordinary efforts to undermine the perceptions and reality of women he sexually preyed upon, the journalists investigating their stories, and the public.^[142][143] He hired Lisa Bloom, the high-profile attorney who represented women sexually abused by Bill Cosby and women who accused Bill O'Reilly, and Donald Trump^[143] of sexual misconduct, for her expertise, including intimate knowledge of how to prey on the vulnerabilities of sexual abuse survivors.^[142] Journalist Ronan Farrow has alleged that NBC did not air his investigation of Weinstein because Weinstein threatened to disclose the sexual indiscretions of NBC's The Today Show host Matt Lauer and MSNBC's president, Phil Griffin. Farrow also alleges that Weinstein retained the intelligence/espionage firm, Black Cube, which Forbes characterizes as the "Mossad" of the "business world",^[144] to uncover vulnerabilities to dissuade journalists who were closing in on Weinstein from going public.^[145][146] Weinstein granted interviews to the New York Post to tout his contributions to society including helping women advance in Hollywood and his work on a charity concert that raised $100 million for the 9/11 first responders through the Robin Hood Foundation.^[147]

Police investigations

In October 2017, the New York City Police Department (NYPD), London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) were reviewing allegations against Weinstein following reports about his conduct.^[148] The London investigation—dubbed "Operation Kaguyak"—reportedly investigated fifteen alleged sexual assaults by Weinstein, dating back to the 1990s.^[149] The UK Crown Prosecution Service has authorized charging Weinstein over alleged indecent assaults that are claimed to have happened in 1996.^[150]

New York trial, conviction and reversal

On November 3, 2017, the NYPD were preparing a warrant to arrest Weinstein for his alleged rape of Paz de la Huerta, an investigation still pending as of May 2018 and unrelated to the later arrest of Weinstein.^[151][152]

On May 25, 2018, Weinstein was charged by the New York County District Attorney's Office with "rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse and sexual misconduct for incidents involving two separate women". After surrendering to the New York City Police Department (NYPD), he was arrested and appeared in the New York City Criminal Court before Judge Kevin McGrath.^[153] Weinstein was released the same day on a $1 million bail. He agreed to surrender his passport and wear an ankle monitor confining him to Connecticut and New York.^[154][153] In July 2018, Weinstein was indicted on an additional charge of "predatory sexual assault" against a woman he allegedly forced into oral sex in 2006.^[155] On October 11, 2018, a judge dismissed one of the sex assault charges.^[156]

Weinstein was initially represented by Benjamin Brafman, but parted ways with Brafman in January 2019,^[157][158] and hired Donna Rotunno as his defense counsel.^[159] Weinstein was tried in February 2020 in Manhattan Supreme Court. At the trial, six women testified that Weinstein had sexually assaulted them; the charges themselves rested on the complaints of two women, a former production assistant and a former actress, who gave the jury accounts from 2006 and 2013, respectively.^{[160][3][161]} On February 24, 2020, the jury found Weinstein guilty of rape in the third degree and a criminal sexual act in the first degree, and not guilty on three counts including two more serious charges of predatory sexual assault.^[2][3] The convictions resulted from the case of "Jane Doe 1", later revealed to be Evgeniya Chernyshova, a Russian model and actress living in Italy. She testified that she attended the 2013 Italian Film Festival in Los Angeles when Weinstein came uninvited to her hotel room; after she opened the door, he eventually raped her in the bath room.^[40]

After the verdict, Weinstein was remanded to jail,^[160] where he was housed in Rikers Island's infirmary unit.^[3] Justice James A. Burke sentenced Weinstein to 23 years in prison on March 11, 2020.^[3] Weinstein was 67 years of age and in poor health at the time of sentencing.^[3] On March 18, 2020, he was transferred to Wende Correctional Facility.^[162]

Appellate proceedings

On June 2, 2022, a unanimous five-judge panel of the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Judicial Department rejected Weinstein's appeal against his sentence. His attorneys announced an appeal to the New York Court of Appeals.^[163][164] Oral proceedings before that court took place in February 2024.^[6]

On 25 April 2024, the New York Court of Appeals overturned the convictions.^[4] The Court of Appeals said the trial judge had made "egregious errors" by admitting the testimony of other alleged victims of Weinstein's about acts for which he was not charged, as prohibited by People v. Molineux (1901).^[165][166] The Court of Appeals ordered a retrial of the rape allegations.^[167]

Los Angeles criminal charges

On January 6, 2020, the Los Angeles County District Attorney announced separate criminal charges against Weinstein, allegedly raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents over a two-day period in 2013. Weinstein was charged with one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint.^[168] On April 10, 2020, Weinstein was charged with sexual battery by restraint against a third victim, related to an incident in 2010.^[169][170] On October 2, 2020, Weinstein was charged with another six additional sexual assault charges from three more incidents in Beverly Hills hotel rooms: three counts of forcible rape and three counts of forcible oral copulation.^[171][172]

On April 12, 2021, Weinstein was formally indicted on eleven counts of sexual assault in Los Angeles County; this was a procedural matter allowing the trial to proceed more quickly. On the same day, Weinstein appeared at a video hearing regarding his extradition to California.^[173] On July 20, 2021, Weinstein was extradited to California to face charges of rape and sexual assault.^[174] He was flown to Los Angeles and taken to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.^[175]

The trial in Los Angeles commenced in October 2022. Weinstein was charged with 11 counts of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual battery, stemming from alleged acts between 2004 and 2013.^[176] He was found guilty of 3 of 7 charges (four of the initial 11 charges were dropped) on December 19, 2022.^[177] Convictions included charges of rape, forced oral copulation and third degree sexual misconduct.^[178] On February 23, 2023, Weinstein was sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison for these convictions.^[5] He was then returned to New York to Mohawk Correctional Facility.^[179]