Ronan Farrow says Hillary Clinton began to distance herself from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist during his investigation into Harvey Weinstein
Ronan Farrow says Hillary Clinton began to distance herself from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist during his investigation of Harvey Weinstein.
Farrow, who served as a special adviser on global youth issues to then-Secretary of State Clinton from 2011 and 2012, told the Financial Times that the pair shared a close relationship until 2017, when word got out that he was looking into allegations of sexual misconduct by Weinstein – one of Clinton’s top fundraisers.
‘It’s remarkable how quickly even people with a long relationship with you will turn if you threaten the centers of power or sources of funding around them,’ he told the outlet in an interview published over the weekend.
‘Ultimately, there are a lot of people out there who operate in that way. They’re beholden to powerful interests, you become radioactive very quickly.’
Farrow did not elaborate on how the relationship cooled.
The findings of his investigation into Weinstein, published in The New Yorker in October 2017, won him a Pulitzer Prize and led to the movie mogul’s downfall while sparking the #MeToo movement.
Clinton reportedly accepted more than $40,000 in direct political contributions from Weinstein dating back to when she ran for senator in 1999. He also encouraged others in Hollywood to contribute to her various campaigns.
The former secretary of state took five days to respond to the reports of Weinstein’s alleged abuses – eventually saying that she was ‘shocked and appalled’ by the revelations.
‘The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated,’ she said in a statement. ‘Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior.’
Clinton also vowed to donate Weinstein’s contributions to charity.
Weinstein reportedly donated more than $40,000 to Clinton’s campaigns dating back to when she ran for senator in 1999, and raised money for her 2016 presidential run
Farrow served as a special adviser on global youth issues to then-Secretary of State Clinton from 2011 and 2012. The pair are seen together in an undated photo Farrow posted to Twitter
In Farrow’s latest book, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, which details how he reported on the sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein, the journalist claimed that Clinton publicist Nick Merrill had contacted him and said the Weinstein story was a ‘concern for us’ during her presidential campaign.
Farrow claimed that the campaign withheld access to Clinton at a time when he was trying to interview her for the foreign policy book he was working on – suggesting that Weinstein had leveraged his relationship with the candidate as a means of applying pressure on the journalist.
Merrill responded to Farrow’s account on Twitter, writing: ‘I genuinely respect Ronan’s work, but have no idea what Weinstein was saying to people to save himself.
‘What I do know is simple: I’d already rejected a Weinstein Co proposed doc about the election before talking to Ronan. If HW misrepresented facts, it wouldn’t be the 1st time.’
Weinstein reportedly went to great lengths to kill Farrow’s story, even contacting the writer’s father, Woody Allen, about blocking its publication.
In Catch and Kill, Farrow recounted receiving a phone call from Weinstein directly, which he described in further detail to the Financial Times.
He said that Weinstein ‘went as below the belt as possible in terms of trying to dig up anything personal that he could to shake me in those moments’.
The producer even referenced Farrow’s sister Dylan’s accusations against their father, telling him: ‘You couldn’t save someone you love, and now you think you can save everyone.’
Farrow said: ‘Every story I work on, there is an effort to weaponize anything and everything.’
Weinstein is set to go to trial in January on five charges related to two incidents involving two women; one who says she was raped by him in March 2013 and one who says he forced her into performing oral sex on him in 2006.
He has pleaded not guilty and maintained that any sexual activity he engaged in was consensual.
Weinstein and Clinton are pictured in 2012 at the TIME 100 Gala celebrating TIME’S 100 Most Influential People
In Farrow’s latest book, Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators, the journalist claimed that he was shut out of the Clinton campaign when his Weinstein investigation came to light. Farrow and Clinton are seen together in an undated photo
Weinstein is set to go to trial in January on five charges related to two incidents involving two women; one who says she was raped by him in March 2013 and one who says he forced her into performing oral sex on him in 2006. He is pictured outside Manhattan court in July 2018
Farrow took aim at the Clinton clan last month during a discussion panel on Real Time with Bill Maher, when he said that former President Bill Clinton was ‘credibly accused of rape’ by Juanita Broaddrick.
The panel was discussing Congresswoman Katie Hill’s resignation following allegations of inappropriate affairs when Maher posed the hypothetical question of whether Bill Clinton would have been treated differently, in light of his Monica Lewinsky scandal, if he were president today.
‘Could Bill Clinton, if he had done what he did in 1998, survive today – or would his own party have thrown him under the bus?’ Maher asked.
‘I think that it is very important to interject that Bill Clinton is a different conversation,’ Farrow told Maher.
‘He has been credibly accused of rape. That has nothing to do with gray areas. I think that the Juanita Broaddrick claim has been overdue for revisiting.’
Farrow said if Clinton was president today, he wouldn’t be able to escape public scrutiny as society’s views on sexual misconduct have ‘changed’.
Broaddrick, a former nursing home administrator, came forward in 1999 to accuse Bill Clinton of raping her in her hotel room in Little Rock in 1978 when he was Arkansas attorney general and running for governor.
He denied the allegation at the time through an attorney.
‘I’m heartened by the fact that people now routinely express outrage about Bill Clinton, and particularly those more serious allegations about him,’ Farrow said.
The US House of Representatives impeached Bill Clinton in 1998, but the Senate acquitted him and he went on to complete his second term in January 2001.
In 1999, Broaddrick sued the president to obtain documents that could be relevant to her allegations, but a judge dismissed the case in 2001.
Farrow took aim at the Clinton clan last month during a discussion panel on Real Time with Bill Maher, when he said that former President Bill Clinton was ‘credibly accused of rape’ by Juanita Broaddrick
Broaddrick (left in 1999), a former nursing home administrator, came forward in 1999 to accuse Bill Clinton (right in the late 1970s) of raping her in her hotel room in Little Rock in 1978 when he was Arkansas attorney general and running for governor