Harvey Weinstein Hired Private Investigators To Spy On Accusers And Block Stories From Reporters, New Yorker Says

As the Harvey Weinstein scandal continues to unravel, more and more information continues to surface, with the most recent being his hiring of a private investigation firm to collect information about the women who accused him of sexual misconduct and reporters who were investigating his past.

According to a new article in the New Yorker, the disgraced Hollywood producer employed Black Cube, which is run mostly by former officers of Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies. With offices in Tel Aviv, London and Paris, the firm’s operatives are highly trained when it comes to intelligence. He also hired Kroll, one of the world’s largest corporate-intelligence companies.

Private investigators from Black Cube met with Rose McGowan, who has been on the forefront of Weinstein scandal, accusing him of rape. The New Yorker article by Ronan Farrow — who wrote the magazine October 10 exposé on Weinstein — reports that one of the investigators posed as a women’s rights advocate and secretly recorded at least four meetings with McGowan. That same investigator met with a journalist to find out which women were talking to the press. In addition, Weinstein directed journalists to interview women and they would report back to him with details.

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Attorney David Boies confirmed that his firm paid Black Cube and Kroll and that the investigators sent him reports which he gave to Weinstein. Boies also signed the contract to attempt to uncover information that would block the New York Times story that ignited the Weinstein scandal.

Weinstein spokesperson Sallie Hofmeister said in a statement to the New Yorker, “It is a fiction to suggest that any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time.”

Farrow recently hinted at this last week when he filled in as a guest for Jeremy Piven — who also is under fire for sexual misconduct — on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Farrow told the late-night host that while working on his story, he’d been threatened with a lawsuit from Weinstein’s lawyer, and intermediaries made a lot of “threatening and menacing” statements. He declined to discuss details, calling them “private” communications, but said that it was “menacing stuff.”

“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,” said Farrow.

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