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Weinstein reportedly hired private investigators to spy on actresses, reporters
. November 06, 2017
Harvey Weinstein was so worried about being accused of sexual abuse in recent years that he hired private investigators — including ex-Mossad agents — to spy on actresses and journalists, according to a new bombshell report from Ronan Farrow.
The investigative reporter published another explosive piece in The New Yorker on Monday night, outlining the ways that Weinstein shielded himself from assault and harassment allegations in 2016.
Specifically, Farrow describes how the Hollywood heavyweight hired two of the world's most prestigious private security firms — Kroll and Black Cube — to gather info on his possible accusers and anyone who may be willing to report their claims.
The agencies each deployed secret operatives to track and "target" stars and reporters, including actress Rose McGowan.
Some of the private investigators even went so far as to pose under false identities and pretend that they were abused by Weinstein, in hopes of getting others to open up.
"The explicit goal of the investigations, laid out in one contract with Black Cube, signed in July, was to stop the publication of the abuse allegations against Weinstein that eventually emerged in the New York Times and The New Yorker," Farrow says.
The 29-year-old was one of the journalists who helped blow the lid on the Weinstein allegations last month in the aforementioned articles. He had been talking about his next piece in recent days, saying he was about to expose the "powerful machine" that the movie producer used to hide his horrific actions.
Farrow talked to at least seven people "directly involved in the effort" for Monday's piece — and obtained "dozens of pages of documents" pertaining to the protection scheme.
According to the report, Weinstein spent roughly a year collecting info on "dozens of individuals" and compiling "psychological profiles" focusing on his targets' personal or sexual histories.
"Weinstein monitored the progress of the investigations personally," Farrow says. "He also enlisted former employees from his film enterprises to join in the effort, collecting names and placing calls that, according to some sources who received them, felt intimidating."
Two private investigators reportedly met with McGowan — one of the countless actresses to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct and rape in recent weeks — to try and get her to speak about what allegedly happened to her. One of the individuals posed as a women's rights advocate and secretly recorded the "Charmed" star without her knowing.
Farrow says that same person later pretended to be an abuse victim during meetings with a reporter — in an attempt to extract info from about other victims.
"In other cases, journalists directed by Weinstein or the private investigators interviewed women and reported back the details," Farrow says.
In addition to using PIs, Weinstein reportedly enlisted members of the media to also do his dirty work and dig up information that he could use against possible accusers. Emails obtained by Farrow show how the 65-year-old was exchanging info back-and-forth last year in a bid to stay shielded.
"A December, 2016, email exchange between Weinstein and Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, shows Howard sharing with Weinstein material obtained by one of his reporters, as part of an effort to help Weinstein disprove McGowan's allegation of rape," the New Yorker report says.
Weinstein allegedly told Howard in subsequent emails that he didn't want to be linked to any recordings or evidence that was uncovered by journalists.
"This is the killer. Especially if my fingerprints r not on this," he said of one recording, which featured an interview with Eliza Avellan, ex-wife of director Robert Rodriguez. The filmmaker reportedly left Avellan to be with McGowan in 2006.
"She laid into Rose pretty hard," Howard told Weinstein, describing Avellan's comments.
"The conversation . . . is RECORDED," he added. "Audio file to follow."
The firms that Weinstein allegedly used, Black Cube and Kroll, are two of the largest corporate intelligence companies in the world.
Black Cube is reportedly run by ex-Mossad officers and other Israeli intelligence agencies. It has branches in Tel Aviv, London and Paris. The company is described online as "a select group of veterans from the Israeli elite intelligence units that specializes in tailored solutions to complex business and litigation challenges."
Kroll, which has licensed private investigators in every state, says on its website that it covers everything from "investigations to cyber security" — while finding answers "to your most critical questions every step of the way."
In Weinstein's case, the investigative effort was reportedly run through the filmmaker's lawyers, one of them being David Boies, attorney for Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential-election controversy.
"Boies personally signed the contract directing Black Cube to attempt to uncover information that would stop the publication of a Times story about Weinstein's abuses, while his firm was also representing the Times, including in a libel case," Farrow says, noting how the lawyer confirmed that his firm had paid the security agencies to get the information and relay it to Weinstein.
"He said that he did not select the firms or direct the investigators' work. He also denied that the work regarding the Times story represented a conflict of interest."
A contract between Weinstein and Boies' law firm, Boies Schiller Flexner, reportedly shows how the disgraced producer handed out hundreds of thousands of dollars in "success fees" to Black Cube for killing stories about him.
While amassing his profiles on his accusers, Weinstein reportedly worked with several other private security firms in addition to Black Cube and Kroll — including the Los Angeles-based agency PSOPS.
One such profile focused on actress Rosanna Arquette, who was an accuser in Farrow's last piece for The New Yorker. In it, investigators described Arquette's posts on social media, including ones about sexual abuse, her family history with molestation and sexual assault, and her apparent friendship with McGowan.
Over the course of a year, Weinstein used the security firms to keep tabs on reporters and flush out their sources — all while remaining out of the spotlight.
"For years, Weinstein had used private security agencies to investigate reporters," Farrow says.
The reason his relationships with the firms were reportedly routed through his legal team was because he wanted to "place investigative materials under the aegis of attorney-client privilege, which can prevent the disclosure of communications, even in court."
Boies went on to admit that his involvement with the secret investigations was a mistake, telling Farrow: "We should not have been contracting with and paying investigators that we did not select and direct."
The lawyer added, "At the time, it seemed a reasonable accommodation for a client, but it was not thought through, and that was my mistake. It was a mistake at the time."
Weinstein's spokesperson, Sallie Hofmeister, denied Boies' claims and Farrow's report altogether when reached by the journalist.
"It is a fiction to suggest that any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time," she said.