Before her sudden resignation from Harvey Weinstein‘s legal team, Lisa Bloom went on a media tour to defend her client. Along with ABC and other networks, Bloom made an appearance on the LawNewz Network where I interviewed her about the Harvey Weinstein allegations. At the time, The New Yorker piece by Ronan Farrow detailing allegations of rape had not been published. We just knew about the sexual harassment claims. Those were bad enough. During the interview, Bloom assured me that Harvey was not going to demean or attack any of the women making accusations against him — although, she said, he did dispute many of them. She said he was not going to play by the “O’Reilly playbook” and try to push dirt out on his accusers.
“Don’t attack the women, don’t disrespect them, don’t hire investigators to dig up dirt on them, that’s the old playbook. Let’s not do that. Let’s conduct yourself with some dignity. Harvey’s response was ‘yeah, let’s do that’ and that is what we are doing,” Bloom said during the October 6 interview. “Every other case that we have seen has been attack the women, disrespect them, call them liars, ask their friends and family to come out and say negative things about them … I saw an opportunity to change that.”
Watch the full 20 minute interview here:
Except, apparently, that wasn’t true. If a new report is accurate, Lisa Bloom made a bald-faced lie to my face. According to Lloyd Grove’s new report in The Daily Beast, Bloom herself called up reporter Ronan Farrow to dish dirt and offer “opposition research” on Rose McGowan, one of the women who accused Weinstein of rape.
“I don’t know if you’ve talked to Rose McGowan, but we have files on her and her sexual history,” Bloom told Farrow, according to knowledgeable sources inside and outside NBC.
McGowan had done an on-camera interview with Ronan Farrow about the allegations but withdrew her participation because she was afraid of legal action from Weinstein after she signed a non-disclosure agreement after he agreed to pay her a $100,000 settlement.
Bloom has not responded to my request to confirm that this happened, and told The Daily Beast that she doesn’t “have any comment on anything related to Harvey Weinstein. I am not authorized to answer any further questions to any reporter about Harvey Weinstein.” And, in fact, this isn’t the first time that Bloom has been accused of trying to undermine the Weinstein’s victims.
Shortly after the explosive Times article detailing Weinstein’s decades long history of alleged sexual harassment surfaced, his board convened an emergency meeting. Bloom, according to the The Times, sent an email outlining a response plan that involved “more and different reporting,” including “photos of several of the accusers in very friendly poses with Harvey after his alleged misconduct.” Bloom said that claim was “unbelievably” false.
The evidence is mounting that Bloom not only advised “old dinosaur” Weinstein about how to be a better person, she is also be accused of working to undermine his attackers. If that’s true, it is certainly troubling.
Rachel Stockman is Editor-in-Chief of LawNewz.com.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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