Harvey Weinstein allegedly hired an “army of spies”, including former Mossad agents, in an attempt to stop accusers from going public with sexual misconduct claims against him, according to a report in the New Yorker. Among the private security agencies hired by Weinstein starting around autumn 2016, the magazine claims, was Black Cube, which is largely run by former officers of Israeli intelligence agencies, including Mossad. Another was corporate intelligence giant Kroll. The report, published on 6 November, alleges that two Black Cube investigators met with actor Rose McGowan, who later publicly accused Weinstein of sexual rape, to obtain information.
The New Yorker also claims that one of the investigators secretly recorded at least four meetings with McGowan while pretending to be a women’s rights advocates, citing dozens of pages of documents and seven people directly involved in Weinstein’s efforts. The investigator reportedly used a different fake identity to meet a New York magazine journalist who was investigating allegations made against Weinstein. She also allegedly attempted to broker a meeting with Ronan Farrow, the New Yorker journalist who reported 13 claims of abuse made against Weinstein last month, and also wrote the 6 November investigation. Weinstein and the private investigators also used journalists to extract details from women who were making claims against the film producer, according to the magazine. During his yearlong effort, Weinstein and his team are accused of collecting information on dozens of people, compiling psychological profiles with their personal or sexual histories in order to contradict, discredit or intimidate his targets.
The New Yorker reports that Weinstein sought the assistance of ex-employees from his movie enterprises to help collect names and place calls. Investigations also allegedly sometimes went through Weinstein’s lawyers. Among them, the New Yorker claims, was David Boies, who represented Al Gore in his 2000 presidential election dispute with George W Bush. The New Yorker claims Boies had signed a contract demanding that Black Cube seek to uncover information to stop the publication of a New York Times story about Weinstein’s sexual abuse when his firm was also representing the Times in a libel case. Boies told the magazine “it was a mistake” to have been involved with the investigators.
Weinstein’s spokeswoman Sallie Hofmeister dismissed the report, saying: “It is a fiction to suggest that any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time.” Neither Hofmeister nor Boies immediately responded to requests for comment.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/07/harvey-weinstein-hired-ex-m…
