Weinstein emails
After news reports about how he sexually assaulted women, Harvey Weinstein asked two dozen powerful people for help.
In the days following news reports about how he used his power to sexually assault women, Harvey Weinstein made a desperate plea for help in emails to two dozen influential people, including billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Jeff Bezos.
That detail was revealed Monday in a trove of previously sealed court documents that offered a look into the days and weeks that followed the Hollywood mogul’s downfall.
Weinstein and his public relations team scrambled to craft a response to the allegations in October 2017. He promised to enter a counseling program for sex addicts, and he did. “Allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance,” he wrote in one email.
A month later, in a scathing letter, Bob Weinstein called his brother a sexual predator and an abusive person who belonged in “hell.”
A few days after that, responding to a question from a gossip columnist, Harvey Weinstein alluded to having been sexually abused as a child. Then, a few weeks later, in a self-pitying, unpublished letter, he said he was suicidal.
The emails and other communications provided insight into the effort by Weinstein and his representatives to portray him as a troubled man who badly wanted to right his wrongs. They also showed his deeply fractured relationship with his brother and his attempts to silence those who sought to expose him.
In one email, Weinstein suggested actress Jennifer Aniston — who he believed had complained about him — should be killed. And even as he endeavored to repair his reputation and excuse his behavior, his communications on the matter were often self-centered, unapologetic, and at times, patronizing.
Two weeks ago, a jury in Manhattan found Weinstein, 67, guilty of third-degree rape and of first-degree criminal sexual act. The newly released records were not presented to the jury as evidence at trial.
Weinstein’s spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, declined to comment. Weinstein faces up to 29 years in prison when he is sentenced Wednesday.
Prosecutors have asked Justice James Burke to consider 36 “prior bad acts” when determining his sentence. Those include alleged sexual assaults against women spanning four decades for which Weinstein was never criminally charged. The earliest allegation comes from a woman who says he raped her on a business trip in 1978.
But Weinstein’s lawyers have argued in court papers that the allegations were never proved and should not be used to determine his punishment.
They also stressed that the producer was acquitted of the most serious charges against him: one count of first-degree rape, which requires the use of force, and two counts of predatory sexual assault, which requires the state to prove he committed serious sexual felonies against at least two women.
The defense lawyers have requested a prison term of five years, the least the law allows. Noting that the life expectancy of someone Weinstein’s age is about 12 more years, they argued a longer term than five years “is likely to constitute a de facto life sentence.”
In all, six women testified about their sexual encounters with Weinstein during his trial in the state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
The jury found Weinstein guilty of forcibly performing oral sex on a production assistant, Miriam Haley, in his Manhattan loft in 2006, and of raping an aspiring actress, Jessica Mann, at a midtown Manhattan hotel in 2013.
On the advice of his lawyers, Weinstein did not testify. The newly released court documents provided one possible reason that he opted not to take the stand. Manhattan prosecutors were prepared to call 11 more “prior bad act” witnesses to testify if he had.
Exposés published in the
New York Times and the New Yorker in October 2017 opened the floodgates. Since then, more than 90 women, many of them actresses, have come forward with allegations he sexually harassed or assaulted them.
The unsealed court documents show that within days of the appearance of the news reports, board members at The Weinstein Co. were looking to fire Weinstein.