Scandal spreads to Washington as more women allege attacks
LEADING Democrats were under pressure last night to return their campaign contributions from Harvey Weinstein, as the fallout from sex scandal engulfing the Hollywood mogul spread to Washington.
The film producer was yesterday at an undisclosed location in Europe, in rehab, after his wife Georgina Chapman announced she was leaving him.
Calls grew for Weinstein to be stripped of his CBE and Cara Delevingne (right) and Heather Graham became the latest stars to allege they had suffered sexual harassment from him.
New York-born Weinstein
(65) had over the course of
25 years accumulated more than $2.2m in donations for the Democrats, both through personal contributions and “bundles”, funds raised by rallying his friends.
By last year, Weinstein had donated more than $26,000 to Hillary Clinton, and put another $15,000 into the political action committee HILLPAC, over
17 years of her political career. A fundraiser for her election campaign, in June 2016, raised more than $1.8m for her presidential run. Weinstein was also a strong supporter of Barack Obama, eventually donating more than $45,000. The Obamas sent their daughter Malia to intern for Weinstein’s company last year.
Both the Obamas and Mrs Clinton issued statements condemning Weinstein – five days after the scandal first broke. But neither mentioned returning the funds.
Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, senators for New York, quickly donated the contributions he had made to their campaigns to charity. But Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York, who received $60,000, has
not followed suit, the New York Republicans allege.
Republicans noted the relative slowness of Democrats’ response and made calls for them to return donations.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office defended a decision by Cy Vance, the former district attorney who is also a Democrat, not to prosecute Weinstein in 2015 when handed an audio tape from the actress, Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, in which Weinstein admitted groping her. Months later Mr Vance received a $10,000 campaign contribution from David Boies, Weinstein’s lawyer. “If we could have prosecuted Harvey Weinstein for the conduct that occurred in 2015, we would have,” said Karen Friedman-Agnifilo, chief assistant district attorney.
“While the recording is horrifying to listen to, what emerged from the audio was insufficient to prove a crime under New York law, which requires prosecutors to establish criminal intent.”
Donald Trump Jr mocked Mrs Clinton with a tweet: “Weird, Hillary has been really quiet about Harvey Weinstein.”
In the UK, Labour MPs vowed to refer Weinstein to the honours forfeiture committee yesterday, meaning he could be stripped of his CBE.