One of the women included in the New York Times report on three decades worth of sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, Italian model Ambra Battilana, pressed charges with the New York Police Department, accusing Weinstein of groping her at his apartment in March 2015. The next month, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. declined to prosecute Weinstein, saying that "after analyzing the available evidence, including multiple interviews with both parties, a criminal charge is not supported." A few months later, in August, International Business Times reports, a longtime Weinstein lawyer, David Boies, donated $10,000 to Vance's campaign.
Vance was just in the news over his decision not to file felony fraud charges against Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. in 2012, overruling his prosecutors, right after Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz donated $25,000 to Vance's campaign. (Vance returned the $25,000 before meeting Kasowitz, who then raised $50,000 for Vance after he dropped the Trump case.) In this instance, Vance spokeswoman Joan Vollero told IBT, "Boies did not represent Harvey Weinstein in 2015 during the criminal investigation." A spokesman for Boies' law firm noted that Boies has donated to Vance's campaign since at least 2005, and said Boies "has never spoken to him about Harvey Weinstein." According to Variety, Boies is one of Weinstein's lawyers to fight the new claims from The New York Times.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
DC prosecutors lose bid to indict sandwich throwerSpeed Read Prosecutors sought to charge Sean Dunn with assaulting a federal officer
-
White House fires new CDC head amid agency exodusSpeed Read CDC Director Susan Monarez was ousted after butting heads with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over vaccines
-
DOGE put Social Security data at risk, official saysSpeed Read DOGE workers made the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans vulnerable to identity theft
-
Court rejects Trump suit against Maryland US judgesSpeed Read Judge Thomas Cullen, a Trump appointee, said the executive branch had no authority to sue the judges
-
Trump expands National Guard role in policingSpeed Read The president wants the Guard to take on a larger role in domestic law enforcement
-
Trump says he's firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa CookSpeed Read The move is likely part of Trump's push to get the central bank to cut interest rates
-
Abrego released from jail, faces Uganda deportationSpeed Read The wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego García is expected to be detained at an ICE check-in and deported to Uganda
-
Trump arms National Guard in DC, threatens other citiesspeed read His next targets are Chicago, New York and Baltimore
