Ronan Farrow says he was menacingly threatened by Harvey Weinstein’s team repeatedly before publishing his explosive New Yorker piece revealing 13 women accusing the producer of sexual harassment and assault.
Farrow appeared on Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Show’ detailing how Weinstein’s people tried to block the piece with a lawsuit and other ‘threatening and menacing’ statements.
‘There were multiple moments where people around me would sit me down and say, ”look are you sure you want to keep going with this.” There was a lot of pressure… and it wasn’t just directed at me, it was directed at a whole range of reporters.’
He says the threats never came directly from Weinstein. ‘I was threatened with a lawsuit by his lawyers and intermediaries did a lot of threatening and menacing statements.’
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Ronan Farrow (left) on Stephen Colbert how Harvey Weinstein’s people threatened him with a lawsuit and menacing statements to stop him from publishing his explosive report
Colbert pressed with questions, however Farrow said the conversations between he and Weinstein’s people are ‘private communications’
Colbert pressed. ‘You’ll never work again, that Hollywood stuff?’
‘I don’t want to get into the private communications on this, but yeah menacing stuff. You’ve heard the legends of how he behaves, you get the idea.’
‘This was a public safety issue,’ Farrow said of his report. ‘You can’t stop going if you have evidence there’s maybe an ongoing pattern of behavior that’s endangering people.’
He also says he did not anticipate the ‘cascade’ of others who came forward with their own allegations against people outside the Weinstein scandal uncovered in his piece and the first bombshell report in the New York Times- both in the early weeks of October.
‘This machine that was so instrumental in keeping this quiet as long as it was quiet – I think there is much more to be said about just how far that went,’ he teased of his next installment.
The NYPD have ensured that Harvey Weinstein (seen left in Arizona on Thursday) cannot leave the US. Police say he’s expected to be charged soon with raping actress Paz de la Huerta (right)
Colbert informed his viewers Farrow originally worked for months on his report for NBC News, ‘and they did not want to broadcast the report you had come up with, so you took it to New Yorker.
‘How much sooner would you have been able to talk about this if NBC had broadcast it?’ Colbert queried.
Farrow said there ‘maybe more to say about the NBC piece of this’ later, but that the focus now needs to be on the ‘flood of women’ who are coming forward.
‘It is very clear, if you look at this story and how long it stayed quiet, that it is of the utmost importance that any news organization that has damning evidence of ongoing criminal activity needs to run that, needs to investigate it…and run it,’ Farrow responded to Colbert pressing on NBC’s decision not to run his piece. ‘That’s what I’ll say about that.’
Weinstein is alleged to have raped de la Huerta on two separate occasions in Manhattan in 2010. He was supposedly in Arizona to attend a rehab clinic
Meanwhile Homeland Security is now watching America’s borders to make sure that Weinstein doesn’t try to flee his impending rape charge, it has emerged.
The disgraced Hollywood producer, 65, who was last seen in Arizona, stands accused of raping actress Paz de la Huerta, 33, on two occasions in 2010.
On Friday, the NYPD said that if he had still been in the city, he would likely have been arrested already. Now they have contacted the feds to make sure he doesn’t flee the country.
‘We don’t want another Roman Polanski on our hands,’ a source told Page Six.
Sources said that Homeland Security was notified by both NYPD and Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, but that Weinstein can still fly internally in the US.
He was last seen with a male friend in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday, eating in a small restaurant.
While he’s in the US, the police can still arrange for his return to New York City, where he allegedly raped de la Huerta.
But if he flees the country then he’ll be in the wind – much like Polanski, the film director accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in LA in 1977, who fled the LAPD and has never returned to the US to face trial.
On Friday, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said that Weinstein being out of New York was delaying his arrest, as was the age of the case.
‘If this person was still in New York and it was recent we would go right away and make the arrest, no doubt,’ he said.
Police are reportedly concerned that Weinstein will follow the lead of film director Roman Polanski (pictured), who fled the US in 1977, after being charged with rape
‘But we’re talking about a seven-year-old case. And we have to move forward gathering evidence.’
He said that de la Huerta contacted police 10 days ago, and that detectives had been working with her since to ensure that the case was robust.
‘We have a credible and detailed narrative, and even though the incident occurred seven years ago there has been corroboration from a number of individuals,’ he said.
He went on to say that investigators contacted the district attorney’s office soon after they interviewed de la Huerta and ‘started working the case together.’
‘We have an actual case here, so we’re happy with where the investigation is right now,’ said Chief Boyce.
‘Mr Weinstein is out of state, [so] we would need an arrest warrant to arrest him. So right now we’re gathering our evidence and we continue to do so, every day. So that’s where we are in the case.’
Chief Boyce also made it very clear that de la Huerta was a strong witness, noting her ‘ability to articulate each and every movement of the crime, where she was, where they met, where this happened and what he did.
The case was further bolstered because De la Huerta was the first victim who was allegedly assaulted by Weinstein after 2006, when New York did away with the statute of limitations in instances of rape, criminal sexual act or aggravated sexual abuse in the first degree.
The assaults alleged by the other two women took place before that law was changed, which means that even if the district attorney’s office files charges against Weinstein in those cases they could be tossed out of court by a judge.
NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said on Friday that Weinstein hadn’t been arrested because he wasn’t in New York and because the incidents allegedly occurred back in 2010
The NYPD confirmed that they have the beginnings of a strong case. De la Huerta contacted them 10 days ago. Pictured: Mayor Bill de Blasio and Commissioner James O’Neill above
Chief Boyce seemed to suggest on Friday that those probes have been put on hold while the focus turns to de la Huerta’s allegations.
At the same time, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has assigned a senior sex crimes prosecutor to work on the case.
‘As to others, I’m not going to close the door and say others wont come forward, but this is what we have right now, this is what we’re moving forward with,’ said Chief Boyce.
On Thursday, Weinstein was spotted for the first time since he claimed to have entered rehab in Arizona.
Weinstein was was seen slurping on some soup at Chestnut, a farm-to-table restaurant in Phoenix, along with an unidentified friend.
He managed to keep a low profile throughout the meal despite the fact that over 100 women have now accused him of sexual harassment and/or assault.
That feat was accomplished in large part because of his disguise, with Weinstein wearing a blond wig over his bald head and orange makeup covering his face before heading out in public.
His guest also appeared to be wearing a wig, with the man keeping a hand on the side of his head during their meal.
Weinstein has been in Arizona for close to a month, where he reportedly attended a week of in-patient rehab at an undisclosed location and is now receiving out-patient treatment.
De la Huerta said on Thursday that Weinstein first raped her in October 2010, claiming that he joined her for a drink at her apartment after the two ran into one another at the Standard Hotel and then forced himself on her despite her protests.
‘He stuck himself inside me,’ said de la Huerta, noting that she was ‘afraid and ‘it all happened very quickly.’
She also stressed that it was non consensual.
‘When he was done he said he’d be calling me. I kind of just laid on the bed in shock,’ said the actress.
The second incident happened two months later when Weinstein came to her apartment, de la Huerta said. She claimed she had been drinking and was therefore unable to give consent.
New York County District Attorney Maxine B. Rosenthal has also been looking into de la Huerta’s claims, with the actress’s lawyer confirming that he turned over information and files to her office earlier this week.
The detective leading the Weinstein investigation for the NYPD said that the evidence needed to make an arrest is in place after Paz de la Huerta’s report (actress above in undated photo)
Among the items turned over were notes from her therapist confirming that de la Huerta spoke about the alleged assault at the time.
‘I recall you telling me that Harvey Weinstein was seeking sexual contact with you on more than one occasion with the promise of additional roles,’ wrote SueAnne Piliero in a letter to the district attorney’s office.
‘I recall you reporting to me a sexual encounter with Harvey Weinstein involving intercourse in your apartment in 2010 that resulted in you feeling victimized.
‘I recall you telling me that it felt coercive to you and that you didn’t want to have sex with him, but felt that you had to as he was a man of power and rank and you couldn’t say no to his sexual advances.’
On Friday, de la Huerta’s lawyer Aaron Filler detailed his client’s experience with Weinstein on ‘Megyn Kelly Today.’
‘She had known him for years because she met him when she was 14 years old when she did Cider House Rules, and she had seen him,’ said Filler.
‘She lived in the neighborhood in Tribeca, where he lives, and right up the street from the Weinstein Company.’
Then, a decade after they met, the two ran into one another at a nightclub in the city, with Weinstein offering the actress a ride home.
De la Huerta was 25 at the time and Weinstein was 58.
In the beginning: De la Huerta first met Weinstein when she was 14 on the set of ‘Cider House Rules’ (de la Huerta is seen above in the film)
When they got to the actress’ building, Weinstein tried to make his way into her apartment, despite her pleas that he leave for the night said her lawyer.
‘And they argued in front of the doorman. And as we’ve heard in the tape from the wire and from 2015 in New York [with Ambra Battilana], convinced her to let him in. And then, rape ensued.’
That was just the beginning though according to Filler.
‘And following that, he began to call her, repeatedly and saying, ‘I’m waiting at your home. I’m in your lobby. I’m parked out front. When are you coming home?’ And the doorman would warn her. She would stay away,’ said Filler.
‘She was afraid to come home.’
Another incident followed a short time later in Los Angeles, said Filler, who seemed to struggle with his appearance on Today.
‘She decided to confront him and tell him, ‘You’re a stalker. You raped me. You’ve got to stop.’ She confronted him in the hotel. She had come to meet him with some other people,’ said Filler.
‘And when she gave him the message. He exposed himself. And she left.’
‘This has been going on for two months. And she decided she was going to confront him. She was very upset. The whole period of stalking and not being able to come home, day after day, really had tremendous impact on her.’
Charges were never filed against Weinstein the last time he was investigated for assault in 2015 by the NYPD, despite police sources saying they thought there was enough evidence to indict the mogul after passing off the case to the district attorney’s office.
Three days after meeting with Battilana at their office, a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Vance announced that the probe into the incident did not find enough evidence to pursue a case.
‘This case was taken seriously from the outset, with a thorough investigation conducted by our sex crimes unit,’ said Joan Vollero at the time.
‘After analyzing the available evidence, including multiple interviews with both parties, a criminal charge is not supported.’
The New York Times revealed last month that Weinstein surrounded himself with a very connected team of litigators before learning that charges would not be pursued in the case.
He retained Elkan Abramowitz, a former law partner of Vance, and Daniel S. Connolly, who was also a former prosecutor.
Linda Fairstein came on as a consultant and introduced Weinstein’s lawyer Abramowitz to Martha Bashford, the head of the district attorney’s sex crimes bureau.
‘Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein,’ said his spokesperson Sallie Hofmeister in a statement shortly after the first exposes were released about his behavior.
‘Mr. Weinstein has further confirmed that there were never any acts of retaliation against any women for refusing his advances.’
She went on to state: ‘Mr. Weinstein obviously can’t speak to anonymous allegations, but with respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.
‘Mr. Weinstein has begun counseling, has listened to the community and is pursuing a better path. Mr. Weinstein is hoping that, if he makes enough progress, he will be given a second chance.’
There is still no confirmation that Weinstein ever entered rehab or sought counseling.