The Case Against Harvey Weinstein, Part 1

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2020

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Note: This episode contains descriptions of sexual violence. The story of Harvey Weinstein is a story of patterns. Scores of women — more than 80 — have given eerily similar accounts of abuse and harassment by the powerful movie mogul. This week, two years after those allegations were first reported in The New York Times, Mr. Weinstein’s trial opens in New York. In the first part of a two-part series, we investigate why the case went from 80 potential plaintiffs to two. Guest: Megan Twohey, an investigative reporter for The Times and co-author of “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.” For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading:Mr. Weinstein’s reputation preceded him as he stepped into a Manhattan courthouse this week to face charges of rape and criminal sexual activity, making it difficult to find jurors who did not already have strong opinions about the case.The reporters who broke the first investigation into Mr. Weinstein explain why the trial rests on a narrow legal case with an already fraught back story and why the result is highly unpredictable.On the first day of Mr. Weinstein’s trial, two other criminal allegations against him were released in Los Angeles.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I was at a dinner in New York City one night with a bunch of friends and I sat down at the table at an empty seat
0:07.9	and he came up behind me and said I think you're in my seat and I recognized him immediately.
0:17.4	I was a very young actor new to Los Angeles.
0:21.1	My first job also at a college and I was 24 years old.
0:24.3	My passion all my life was to work in the film industry.
0:26.8	And he was completely, I mean, he's really charming when he wants to be.
0:33.5	We had been in touch about an audition for a Quentin Tarantino film and that's when I met with him at the peninsula.
0:40.4	He had his assistant call me at the last minute and say Harvey Kent meets you and the lobby,
0:44.7	Harvey Kent meets you in the cafe.
0:46.3	Can you go up to his office to his hotel suite?
0:48.9	That's when he said, we'll come and see me at my hotel and he told me, okay, we're going to my room now.
0:54.6	I opened the door and he just went straight into my bedroom.
0:57.7	He wanted to know if I was cool and if we were friends and he just wanted to relax with me.
1:03.0	After some normal conversation, he said, how about you just give me a massage?
1:06.5	Yes, me if I'd give him a massage.
1:08.1	He asked me to give him a massage.
1:11.9	Which I declined.
1:16.0	And I thought it would end there but that's when he blocked the exit for me.
1:22.6	His whole affect changed and he looked like a predator.
1:27.3	I just remember that feeling of having to fight off an invader.
1:33.2	If I would try to fight myself away from him, he would then move around
1:38.4	until he could block me in somewhere and he's a big individual.
	...

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