- Renowned victims’ rights attorney Lisa Bloom worked with disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein behind the scenes to map a plan to discredit and silence women who had accused him of sexual harassment and assault.
- A memo published in a new book by New York Times reporters who broke news of the scandal reveals that Bloom was working with Weinstein at a rate of $895 an hour to quash the journalists’ investigation and organize a multi-faceted campaign to silence one of his most high-profile accusers, Rose McGowan.
- The memo is published in full in “ She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement,” by Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey.
- Bloom offered her background as a victims’ rights advocate as an asset and offered efforts like a “counterops online campaign to push back and call her out as a pathological liar.”
- McGowan called for Bloom to be disbarred as Bloom posted an apology two days before the book’s release.
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Renowned victims’ rights attorney Lisa Bloom worked with disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein behind the scenes to map a plan to discredit one of his most high-profile accusers, Rose McGowan.
A memo published in a new book by New York Times reporters who broke news of the scandal reveals that Bloom was working with Weinstein at a rate of $895 an hour to quash the journalists’ investigation and organize a multi-faceted campaign to silence his accusers.
In “ She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement,” Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey published the confidential memo from Bloom to Weinstein that was written in December 2016, in which Bloom offered her background as a victims’ rights advocate as an asset.
“I feel equipped to help you against the Roses of the world, because I have represented so many of them,” Bloom wrote. “They start out as impressive, bold women, but the more one presses for evidence, the weaknesses and lies are revealed.”
McGowan has alleged that Weinstein raped her at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival for which she later received a $100,000 settlement from him.
Among her proposed strategies to discredit McGowan, Bloom described a “counterops online campaign to push back and call her out as a pathological liar” that would make her appear as “becoming increasingly unglued, so that when someone Googles her this is what pops up and she’s discredited.”
Bloom also proposed “positive reputation management” via search-engine-optimization, starting a foundation focused on gender equality, and a pre-emptive press conference talking about Weinstein’s evolving stance on gender issues.
After the revelation went public, McGowan called for Bloom to be disbarred.
Kantor and Twohey’s reporting is credited with sparking the #MeToo movement, of which McGowan was a major figure, and the book includes interviews with the movement’s prominent figures, including Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who testified that Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her.
The disgraced producer is set to face trial in 2020 for charges of sexual assault and rape, which he previously pleaded not guilty to, stating that he has never had nonconsensual sex.
Bloom has since stepped back from her work with Weinstein, and tweeted a public apology two days before the book was set for release, writing, “To those who missed my 2017 apology, and especially to the women: I am sorry.”
The book “She Said” was officially released on September 10.
Read the full letter from Bloom below.