A lawyer for Harvey Weinstein donated $10,000 to New York City District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr after Vance’s office decided not to prosecute Weinstein over sexual assault allegations.
According to the International Business Times, the contribution came from David Boies, who has represented Weinstein publicly in many of the producer’s high-profile legal battles, in April 2015.
While a spokesperson for Vance told the news organization that Boies didn’t represent Weinstein during that criminal investigation, the site points out that Boies has done work for Weinstein since at least 2005.
David Boies (left), a lawyer for movie mogul Harvey Weinstein (right), donated $10,000 to a New York City District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr after Vance’s office decided not to prosecute Weinstein over sexual assault allegations
Boies, who has represented Weinstein publicly in many of the producer’s high-profile legal battles, made the contribution in April 2015 (Pictured, from left to right: David Boies, wife Mary Boies and Harvey Weinstein at the TIME 100 Gala in April 2011)
A spokesperson for Vance (pictured, March 2016) told the International Business Times that Boies didn’t represent Weinstein during that criminal investigation
‘David Boies did not represent Harvey Weinstein in 2015 during the criminal investigation,’ Joan Vollero, communications director for Vance, told the International Business Times about Boies’s campaign contributions.
Edward Evans, a spokesperson for the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, also said in a statement: ‘David Boies has been a supporter of the District Attorney since long before 2015, including before he was first elected, and has never spoken to him about Harvey Weinstein.’
The revelation about Vance dropping the Weinstein investigation comes on the heels of another recent report describing how Vance decided against prosecuting Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr after another lawyer contribution.
In 2010, Vance was looking into whether Donald Trump’s children misled prospective buyers in a failed Manhattan Trump Soho project, according to a report by ProPublica and WNYC.
Vance then overruled his own attorneys and declined to pursue felony fraud charges against the two after Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz, gave Vance’s campaign $25,000.
Vance’s campaign spokesperson Steve Sigmund told the International Business Times that just before Kasowitz met with Vance about the case, Vance’s campaign returned the $25,000 donation.
Vance is already under scrutiny after he decided against prosecuting Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr (pictured, January 2017) after another lawyer contribution
Vance was looking into whether Donald Trump’s children misled prospective buyers in a failed Manhattan Trump Soho project. After declining to press charges, Trump’s personal attorney, Marc Kasowitz (pictured, June 2017), gave Vance’s campaign $25,000
Weinstein issued an apology, but attorney Lisa Bloom told the Times that the movie producer ‘denies many of the accusations as patently false’.
The Weinstein Company’s board is planning to investigate the sexual harassment complaints against Weinstein as he takes a leave of absence.
On Thursday, The New York Times published a report detailing how multiple women accused Weinstein of engaging in ‘sexual harassment and unwanted physical contact.’ Among the accusers are actress Ashley Judd (left, with Weinstein in 1997) and Italian model Ambra Battilana (right, 2014)
Among the allegations was an incident two decades ago in which actress Ashley Judd recalled that Weinstein asked if he could give her a massage or she could watch him shower.
More recently, in 2015, Italian model and aspiring actress Ambra Battilana filed a police report after alleging that the producer grabbed her breasts – asking if they were real – and put his hand up her skirt.