Harvey Weinstein and Lisa Bloom. Photo courtesy of New York Daily News.
Summary: Attorney Lisa Bloom allegedly offered a reporter opposition research on rape victim Rose McGowan.
For decades, attorney Lisa Bloom made a name for herself as a feminist lawyer who advocated for victims of sexual abusers. However, recently, her reputation has been hit because of her affiliation with Hollywood predator, Harvey Weinstein. Over the past year, Bloom represented Weinstein while he was preparing for the journalism pieces about his nefarious sexual behavior. When the articles were finally published, people also questioned what Bloom was doing helping an accused man instead of an accuser.
In early October, Bloom promptly resigned as Weinstein’s counsel after it was revealed that he was not only a sexual harasser but also an accused rapist. Unfortunately for her, resigning did not stop continued damage to her reputation. An email of hers leaked to The Huffington Post, and the message implied that one way to discredit the accusers was to publish photographs of them looking chummy with Weinstein.
“[Weinsten’s legal team could attack] their credibility and release negative stories about them to the press,” Bloom wrote. “[This would] scare other women from coming forward, which has always been the way it’s been done before.”
Bloom told The Huffington Post that her email was misconstrued.
“There was absolutely no plan to go after accusers. What I meant [in the email] was that there is going to be a lot more coming because every media outlet in the world was reaching out to us with information and yes, photos,” Bloom said.
The photographs of the victims weren’t Weinstein’s only possible disgusting defense. According to The Daily Beast, Bloom also kept a file of Weinstein’s alleged rape victim, Rose McGowan, and she had tried to give it to journalist Ronan Farrow, who later published his Weinstein report in The New Yorker. In Bloom’s file was a detailed history of McGowan’s sexual past, and sources said that Farrow was “stunned and disgusted” by it.
Since The New York Times published its account of Weinstein’s abuse of power earlier this month, dozens of women such as Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Asia Argento have come forward to say that the Weinstein Company creator had sexually assaulted or harassed them. Weinstein was swiftly ousted from the Weinstein Company; and London’s police department, the NYPD, and LAPD have announced that they have opened Weinstein rape investigations.
McGowan, who starred in Scream and the TV show Charmed, said that she was raped by Harvey Weinstein in 1997 and was given $100,000 as a settlement to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Since The New York Times’ story and Farrow’s The New Yorker account have been published, McGowan has broken her NDA and actively spoken out against Weinstein and sexual harassment in Hollywood.
McGowan has also taken offense to Lisa Bloom. In a lengthy Facebook post, the actress blasted the lawyer for her alleged role as a Weinstein enabler.
“Your very name makes my stomach clench with a stressed tightness that takes my breath away. As does your mercenary act of depravity,” McGowan wrote. “Did you think of how it would affect victims to see you champion a rapist? How it felt to those you once ‘fought for,’ for them to know that you used them. You remember them right? They were the victims of assaults, women you’d previously helped. You lied to those hurt women and hid your true character. You wanted a shortcut to fame.”
The Daily Beast reached out to Bloom who declined to speak directly about the Weinstein case, but she stated that she fights for her clients, in general.
“As a lawyer for the last 31 years (litigating for 23), I have fought hard for many men and women, mostly ordinary people in discrimination and harassment cases against powerful entities,” Bloom said. “Most of my clients come to me in great distress. We treat them with sensitivity and fight their cases aggressively. Opponents who receive my firm’s letters and phone calls are often not pleased with us. Litigators don’t win popularity contests. But the vast majority of our clients are delighted with our work and the tremendous victories we achieve in case after case. They send me beautiful thank you notes, and refer their friends and family to us.”
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