COMPLICITY FILES
Devastating report says many top people, including Hillary Clinton’s inner circle, knew of Weinstein’s predatory behaviour
HILLARY Clinton’s aides ignored warnings that her campaign backer Harvey Weinstein was ‘a rapist’ who was about to be exposed, it was claimed yesterday.
The biggest investigation into the coverup behind the scandal revealed yesterday that her team ignored several warnings about the Hollywood producer. It was titled ‘Weinstein’s complicity machine’ and was based on more than 200 interviews, internal company records and previously undisclosed emails.
Lena Dunham, the writer and actress, said she told two members of the Democratic nominee’s campaign staff about alleged sexual misconduct by Weinstein. It also revealed that:
Weinstein had a lawyer nicknamed the ‘Cleaner-Upper’;
Eight agents at a talent agency hushed up his activities;
Two female employees were sent to shops to buy erectile dysfunction drugs for him and; Employees were given a ‘bible’ on how to answer the phone to his wife.
According to the 8,000-word report in the New York Times, Miss Dunham said she told Mrs Clinton campaign’s deputy communications director, Kristina Schake, in March 2016, after becoming concerned about his visible presence during her campaign, hosting fundraisers and appearing at campaign events.
She said: ‘I just want you to let you know that Harvey’s a rapist and this is going to come out at some point,’ according to the report. ‘I think it’s a really bad idea for him to host fundraisers and be involved, because it’s an open secret in Hollywood that he has a problem with sexual assault.’
She also claims she warned Mrs Clinton’s campaign spokesman Adrienne Elrod about Weinstein’s behaviour. Miss Dunham said her concerns appeared to have been ignored, because weeks before the election, Weinstein helped to organise a fundraiser for Mrs Clinton featuring Anne Hathaway and Julia Roberts.
Meanwhile, British-born magazine editor Tina Brown said she sounded the alarm during the 2008 presidential race. She said she cautioned a ‘member of Mrs Clinton’s inner circle.’
She said: ‘I was hearing that Harvey’s sleaziness with women had escalated since I left Talk in 2002 and
‘Something staff wouldn’t forget’
she was unwise to be so closely associated with him.’ It is not clear if the warnings ever made it to Bill or Hillary Clinton themselves but the couple served as Weinstein’s most effective ‘celebrity shield’, the report said.
Weinstein brought celebrities and glamour to the Clinton’s fundraisers and personally donated £1million to Mrs Clinton’s presidential campaign. He also donated $10,000 to Mr Clinton’s legal fund during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. After she lost the 2016 election, Mrs Clinton began planning a TV documentary about her campaign with Weinstein. Discussions lasted right up until the allegations surfaced.
She said in a statement in October that she was ‘shocked and appalled by the revelations’, adding that the alleged behaviour ‘ cannot be tolerated.’ But she came under fire for waiting a week before speaking out.
Nick Merrill, Hillary Clinton’s communications director, said: ‘We were shocked when we learned what he’d done. It’s despicable behaviour, and the women that have come forward have shown enormous courage.
‘As to claims about a warning, that’s something staff wouldn’t forget’.
Referring to Miss Dunham, he said: ‘Only she can answer why she would tell them instead of those who could stop him’. Elrod and Schake denied that Dunham mentioned rape to them and campaign manager Robby Mook said he was never alerted.
Weinstein’s dark secrets were revealed early that month by exposes in the New York Times and the New Yorker magazine which said that he raped at least three women. Around 100 women have since made allegations against him. The New York Times piece included interviews with 200 people naming people involved in the Weinstein cover-up machine.
Executives at Miramax, which he founded, covered up for him going back to 1990 when he was accused of assaulting a 23-year- old assistant. Steve Hutensky, a Miramax lawyer dubbed the ‘Cleaner-Upper’, helped
draft a strict non-disclosure agreement which all employees had to sign. The New York Times also raised questions about the lack of oversight from Disney, which owned Miramax.
At least eight agents at talent agency CAA knew about Weinstein’s behaviour but hushed it up, the New York Times says. Weinstein was said to have been especially close to proprietors of American Media, which owns The National Enquirer, Globe, OK! and showbiz site Radar Online. The article claims that Dylan Howard, The Enquirer’s editor, dispatched a reporter to dig up dirt on Rose McGowan, one of Weinstein’s accusers, at his behest. Weinstein emailed back: ‘This is killer. Especially if my fingerprints r not on this’. Weinstein also reportedly hired A. J. Benza, a gossip journalist, to do stories on other celebrities which he could use to barter with reporters who were probing how he was cheating on his first wife with Georgina Chapman, the British designer who became his second wife. As Weinstein became aware, he hired Black Cube, a private investigation firm staffed by former staff of Mossad – Israel’s intelligence agency – to investigate his accusers. One agent posed as a woman’s rights advocate and spoke with Miss McGowan. The New York Times also claimed that Weinstein bragged about sleeping with Gwyneth Paltrow even though she turned him down aged 22.
Meanwhile Weinstein employees were given a ‘Bible’ of how to behave which included instructions on how to answer the phone to his British wife Georgia Chapman. Among the other claims is that two of Weinstein’s female employees also had to buy injectable erectile dysfunction drugs for him. The story broke as Weinstein, his brother Bob and their company The Weinstein Co were hit with a new racketeering class-action lawsuit. Six women called Weinstein a ‘predator’ and were claiming he was guilty of civil battery, assault, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.