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.
-
House posts lewd Epstein note attributed to TrumpSpeed Read The estate of Jeffrey Epstein turned over the infamous 2003 birthday note from President Donald Trump
-
Supreme Court allows 'roving' race-tied ICE raidsSpeed Read The court paused a federal judge's order barring agents from detaining suspected undocumented immigrants in LA based on race
-
South Korea to fetch workers detained in Georgia raidSpeed Read More than 300 South Korean workers detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant will be released
-
DC sues Trump to end Guard 'occupation'Speed Read D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb argues that the unsolicited military presence violates the law
-
RFK Jr. faces bipartisan heat in Senate hearingSpeed Read The health secretary defended his leadership amid CDC turmoil and deflected questions about the restricted availability of vaccines
-
White House defends boat strike as legal doubts mountSpeed Read Experts say there was no legal justification for killing 11 alleged drug-traffickers
-
Epstein accusers urge full file release, hint at own listspeed read A rally was organized by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, who are hoping to force a vote on their Epstein Files Transparency Act
-
Court hands Harvard a win in Trump funding battleSpeed Read The Trump administration was ordered to restore Harvard's $2 billion in research grants
