Manhattan D.A. who dropped charges against Trump children also declined to prosecute Harvey Weinstein

(Image credit: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)

published 6 October 2017

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.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.