Man says he was hired by Harvey Weinstein to spy on celebrities: List 'culminated in 91 names'

Taryn Ryder
Updated

A man who claims he worked for a company hired by Harvey Weinstein to spy on the producer's accusers has identified himself in a new interview. Seth Freedman spoke to BBC and said he was one of the operatives on that mission while working for the private intelligence firm Black Cube. (In November 2017, Ronan Farrow first wrote about Weinstein's "army of spies" and called out Black Cube.)

Weinstein became a client in 2016, before news of his alleged predatory behavior was made public.

Seth Freedman claims to have worked for Black Cube, a private intelligence firm hired by Harvey Weinstein, where he spied on the producer's accusers.
Seth Freedman claims to have worked for Black Cube, a private intelligence firm hired by Harvey Weinstein (pictured), where he spied on the producer's accusers. (Photo: Scott Heins/Getty Images)

"Anything that the clients want is available and carried out by people who've usually been trained in Israeli intelligence, in Mossad and other intelligence agencies," Freedman explained. He stated that he was assigned to the Weinstein case.

"I was told there's a plot against [Harvey] and that various people are involved in trying to smear him and trying to put out all kinds of negative publicity," he shared.

According to Freedman, Weinstein asked him to pursue several celebrities.

"The list of people that Harvey wanted us to go after grew bigger," Freedman said. "It culminated in 91 names. You know, actors and actresses who'd worked for him in the past and who didn't seem like they would be involved in a current plot against him but again, you're just doing your job."

He continued, "The list was updated by Harvey and it had Rose McGowan's name on [it]."

Freedman called McGowan and posed as a journalist in order to extract information from her.

"Literally we're just talking about her entire career. At no point do I mention Weinstein because that's not what I'm there to do. I don't even know what the allegations are necessarily at this point. And she brought it up. She said, 'I was attacked by this director, I'm going to tell all of this in my book,'" he recalled.

BBC obtained part of their secret recording. After the Charmed star brought up the attack, Freedman probed a bit, asking if she went to the police or if she had proof she was telling the truth. McGowan shared that she had a signed document from when she settled with the director.

"Obviously I give that recording to Black Cube, it's shared with Harvey Weinstein and his legal team and they can see, OK that might be what she's planning to do with her book," Freedman explained.

Freedman isn't ashamed about what he did. "None of this is attested in court, so as far as I'm concerned I'm totally neutral about the whole thing," he said.

He also slammed the press for creating a narrative "that Black Cube were hired to intimidate, harass and silence [Harvey's] victims. No intimidation, no silencing, no harassing. All of those things would be illegal and none of those things happened."

When asked if he felt guilty for making that call to McGowan, Freedman replied, "I don't feel guilty about anything I did for Black Cube."

The Shakespeare in Love producer has been accused of sexual assault, misconduct and/or harassment by over 90 women. He has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.

Weinstein’s rape trial is currently underway in New York City. On Thursday, it was reported seven jurors were selected. According to Variety, four of the jurors are men and three are women. Three men are white, a man and two women are African-American, and one women is African-American and Latina. Opening arguments are slated to begin on Jan. 22.

Watch Rosanna Arquette, Rose McGowan and more gather outside as Weinstein’s trial begins:

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