Dolan knew of Harv sex racket: suit
AFTER A PERIOD of relative silence, Harvey Weinstein came out swinging Wednesday against claims he built a “complicity machine” to abuse women and used his company as a personal piggy bank.
Weinstein’s criminal lawyers and reps shared lengthy new statements that addressed a raft of fresh allegations in a New York Times piece published Tuesday.
The Times reported Weinstein once had an assistant use his corporate credit card to rent him a furnished apartment stocked with women’s lingerie, flowers, two bathrobes and extra clothes.
Weinstein, 65, also put women on movie production payrolls without clear assignments and wanted his company to pay for a private jet stop in Europe to pick up a model, The Times reported.
“At no time during his tenure at either Miramax or (the Weinstein Co.) did Mr. Weinstein ever utilize company resources for personal expenditures, and in the few instances where there was any confusion, Mr. Weinstein immediately reimbursed the company out of his own pocket,” lawyers Blair Berk and Ben Brafman said.
They claim Weinstein never tapped into his company funds to pay for his confidential settlements.
“Each and every one of the handful of conflicts ever settled over 30 years was paid by Mr. Weinstein personally with the knowledge of the company and/or its counsel. During Mr. Weinstein’s tenure, he not only loaned the company money, but he deferred payments owed to him and he personally guaranteed company loans in order for the company to survive,” the lawyers said.
Weinstein’s attorneys also updated their client’s blanket denial of the rape allegations from actresses including Rose McGowan, Asia Argento, Annabella Sciorra and Paz de la Huerta.
“Mr. Weinstein has never at any time committed an act of sexual assault, and it is wrong and irresponsible to conflate claims of impolitic behavior or consensual sexual contact later regretted with an untrue claim of criminal conduct,” the lawyers said.
“There is a wide canyon between mere allegation and truth, and we are confident that any sober calculation of the facts will prove no legal wrongdoing occurred.”
Weinstein “remains deeply apologetic” to anyone “offended”by his behavior, the statement read.
The producer was fired from his company and entered a vaguely described treatment program in Arizona after exposés that included accounts of sexual misconduct from actresses including Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino and Rosanna Arquette. THE NEW YORK TIMES sued the Weinstein Co. on Wednesday for more than $200,000 in unpaid advertising — the same day the paper published another investigation detailing Harvey Weinstein’s alleged serial abuse of women. Papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court allege the company owes $229,568 for advertising in New York Times publications. The four-page suit came the same day The Times reported on the many people in the orbit of the disgraced movie mogul who, according to the report, were complicit in his behavior. The paper reported that some staff were even tasked with procuring penile injections for Weinstein’s erectile dysfunction. A NEW class action lawsuit from six Harvey Weinstein accusers cast a wide net Wednesday, naming Knicks owner James Dolan as one of its defendants.
The suit said Weinstein, his brother Bob, the Weinstein Co., Miramax and several board members including Dolan were part of a “sexual enterprise” that enabled Weinstein’s misconduct through a “pattern of racketeering activity.”
Dolan (photo) was a Weinstein Co. director from mid-2015 to June 2016, according to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court.
“Dolan knew of Weinstein’s pattern and practice of predatory sexual conduct toward women from his personal relationship with Weinstein and his position as a director of (the Weinstein Co.),” the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs — Louisette Geiss, Katherine Kendall, Zoe Brock, Sarah Ann Thomas, Melissa Sagemiller and Nannette Klatt — said in a joint statement they want to prove “it is costlier to cover up assault, harassment, rape and violence” than it is to protect victims.
“We hope the board — particularly Robert Weinstein — feels the full weight of the secrets they kept. It is our fervent hope that these men will choose to go down in history as redemptive characters, not as men who helped cover up rape culture,” they said.
Weinstein representatives were “reviewing” the lawsuit and had no immediate comment, a spokeswoman for the disgraced movie mogul said.
“We can state that Mr. Dolan is confident that he acted appropriately in all matters relating to his time on the Weinstein board,” a Dolan spokeswoman told The News.
Weinstein and Dolan had a long-running public friendship, but the New York businessman seemed to distance himself in October when news of Weinstein’s long history of predatory behavior came to light.
The former Cablevision CEO hasn’t spoken to Weinstein “in more than a year,” a person close to Dolan told the Daily News.