Self-styled feminist victims’ rights attorney Lisa Bloom sent a leaked memo to alleged serial sexual predator Harvey Weinstein promising to plant dirt on his female accusers and frame him as a “hero,” a new book from New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey claims.
“I feel equipped to help you against the Roses of the world because I have represented so many of them,” Bloom reportedly wrote in the memo, referring to actress and rape accuser Rose McGowan. “They start out as impressive, bold women, but the more one presses for evidence, the weaknesses and lies are revealed.”
The attorney promised online “‘counter-ops’ to ‘push back and call her out as a pathological liar,’ suppressing Weinstein’s negative news stories on Google through ranking manipulation, discrediting and intimidating McGowan, and inventing equality initiatives meant to paint him as a newly reformed supporter of women,” according to The New York Daily News.
“We can place an article re [McGowan] becoming increasingly unglued,” Bloom offered. “So that when someone Googles her this is what pops up and she’s discredited.”
“You should be the hero of your story, not the villain,” the feminist told the Democrat mega-donor. “This is very doable.”
According to the book “She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement,” the damning memo was sent from Bloom in December 2016. Kantor and Twohey report Bloom scored $895 an hour secretly working for Weinstein, reportedly attempting to squash investigations into the assault claims.
“The day before their bombshell October 2017 Times exposé on Weinstein was published, Bloom and the movie mogul went to the paper’s offices to slam several of his accusers, including actress Ashley Judd, as mentally unstable and unreliable, Kantor and Twohey claim,” Page Six noted. “Bloom also called up New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow to offer opposition research info on McGowan, the Daily Beast has reported.”
McGowan reacted to the reporting from Kantor and Twohey in the new book by calling for Bloom to be disbarred.
“The evil that was perpetrated on me and others was mind bending and illegal. Lisa Bloom should be disbarred,” the “Charmed” actress posted in a tweet on Sunday.
“While painful, I learn so much more from my mistakes than my successes,” Bloom posted in a tweet on Sunday regarding the controversy. “To those who missed my 2017 apology, and especially to the women: I am sorry.”
“I thank Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey and Ronan Farrow for forcing me to confront the colossal mistake I made in working for Weinstein two years ago,” she said in an attached statement, adding, “When the first woman went on record accusing [Weinstein] of sexual assault, I immediately resigned and apologized, but that was not enough.”
Bloom has been outspoken on high-profile sexual misconduct cases. In September 2018, she said on Twitter that then-nominated Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh did indeed sexually assault accuser Christine Blasey Ford, though the dubious claim was uncorroborated, the alleged witnesses she named denying any knowledge of the party or outright refuting the accusation, and the Senate Judiciary Committee ultimately found that there was “no evidence to substantiate any of the claims.”
“Likely that both Dr. Ford and Judge Kavanaugh believe they are telling the truth. Ford because she is, and could never forget that awful night. Kavanaugh as it was no big deal to him at the time, easily forgettable. This is how assaulters think. I’ve seen it in many of my cases,” Bloom wrote via Twitter.