How Harvey Weinstein Used Elaborate Nondisclosure Agreements To Silence Accusers
Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein used lengthy nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) attached to hefty monetary settlements to prevent accusers from coming forward with reports of his alleged serial sexual predation, as detailed in a new story from The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow published on Tuesday.
Farrow, who previously detailed the extensive bullying mechanisms used by Weinstein to discredit his accusers, found that while such agreements are common, the ones that Weinstein made accusers, as well as employees, sign appeared to be have been unusually stringent and sophisticated.
Model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, who in an undercover police investigation in 2015 captured audio of Weinstein admitting to groping her, signed an agreement that essentially allowed Weinstein to conceal all of her evidence proving his abusive behavior, according to Farrow:
Gutierrez’s settlement, a copy of which I reviewed, bears Weinstein’s signature and orders the destruction of all copies of audio recordings of Weinstein admitting to the groping. Gutierrez agreed to give her phone and any other devices that might have contained copies of the recording to Kroll, another private-security firm retained by Weinstein. She also agreed to surrender the passwords to her e-mail account and other forms of digital communication that could have been used to spirit out copies. A sworn statement, pre-signed by Gutierrez, is attached to the agreement, to be released in the event of any breach. It states that the behavior Weinstein admits to in the audio tape never happened.
“The Weinstein confidentiality agreement is perhaps the most usurious one I have seen in decades of practice,” an attorney familiar with the agreement told me.
The agreements are yet another mechanism that perpetrators can use to assert power over their victims and can contribute to serial allegations being swept under the rug for years, as was the case for Weinstein.
“A forever N.D.A. should not be legal,” longtime Weinstein executive Irwin Reiter told Farrow. “People should not be made to live with that. He’s created so many victims that have been burdened for so many years, and it’s just not right.”
The New York Times’ Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey have similarly described “elaborate” settlements and nondisclosure agreements that they uncovered in their reporting on Weinstein.
“Sometimes the settlements are much more elaborate in what they require,” Twohey said on NPR’s “Fresh Air” last week. “You know, ‘if somebody comes to you, if the press ever comes to you for comment, you have to say positive things about me.’”
Part of their reporting process in breaking their initial story on Weinstein involved persuading his employees to break their agreements, Kantor said in the interview.
“We had a lot of sources who had signed NDAs, like, even company employees who had signed NDAs. And they would say, ‘Oh, you know, Jodi, Megan, you know, I’d love to talk to you, but I can’t because I have an NDA,‘” Kantor recounted. “And we would essentially have to, you know, convince them to break the NDA, which, by the way, both Megan and I have done a lot in our reporting over the years. So many companies now are so ‘NDAed up’ that it’s become a little bit of a routine conversation for us.”
While NDAs are common in businesses, they urged Weinstein employees that the agreements should not bar them from reporting abuse in the workplace.
“One of the things we said to them is, ‘Hey, listen. You did not sign a document saying that you would not speak out against serious wrongdoing and that you would help cover up abuse.’ And you know, in some ways, you want to almost, like, politely amp up the pressure on the person you’re talking to and say, ‘Hey, you’re not going to let them do that to you, right?’” Kantor said. “Your NDA is supposed to be, the point of it is that you shouldn’t, like, leak the movie release dates to a competing company. The point of this NDA should not be that you’re not going to stand up for another human being who is being hurt very badly.”
The legal paper trail created by the settlements and NDAs can be a powerful tool for corroborating stories of alleged abuse, she said, in allowing reporters to “reverse engineer that process.”
“We were able to trace the legal and financial records where Harvey Weinstein, again and again and again, had silenced women who had come forward with some sort of allegation, using money, using legal muscle, using some sort of professional intimidation,” Kantor said.
Read Farrow’s full story here.
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Ashley Judd
She told the Times that she thought, “How do I get out of the room as fast as possible without alienating Harvey Weinstein?”
Gwyneth Paltrow
“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she said, noting that when Weinstein found out she told her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt, "I thought he was going to fire me."
Angelina Jolie
Kate Winslet
"I had hoped that these kind of stories were just made up rumours, maybe we have all been naïve," she said. "And it makes me so angry. There must be ‘no tolerance’ of this degrading, vile treatment of women in ANY workplace anywhere in the world.”
Meryl Streep
“The disgraceful news about Harvey Weinstein has appalled those of us whose work he championed, and those whose good and worthy causes he supported," she said in a statement.
Rose McGowan
After The Weinstein Company fired Harvey, the actress and director called on the rest of the studio's board to resign.
"They knew," she said in a tweet. "They funded. They advised. They covered up. They must be exposed. They must resign."
Ben Affleck
Actress Rose McGowan denounced Affleck for implying that he didn't know of the abuse before this week, saying that the pair had previously discussed Weinstein's treatment of her.
"You lie," she tweeted.
Lena Dunham
"Abuse, threats and coercion have been the norm for so many women trying to do business or make art," she wrote. "Mr. Weinstein may be the most powerful man in Hollywood to be revealed as a predator, but he’s certainly not the only one who has been allowed to run wild. His behavior, silently co-signed for decades by employees and collaborators, is a microcosm of what has been happening in Hollywood since always and of what workplace harassment looks like for women everywhere."
George Clooney
"A good bunch of people that I know would say, “Yeah, Harvey’s a dog” or “Harvey’s chasing girls,” but again, this is a very different kind of thing," the actor told the Daily Beast. "This is harassment on a very high level. And there’s an argument that everyone is complicit in it. I suppose the argument would be that it’s not just about Hollywood, but about all of us—that every time you see someone using their power and influence to take advantage of someone without power and influence and you don’t speak up, you’re complicit. And there’s no question about that."
Jennifer Lawrence
"I worked with Harvey five years ago, and I did not experience any form of harassment personally, nor did I know about any of these allegations. This kind of abuse is inexcusable and absolutely upsetting," Lawrence said in a statement. "My heart goes out to all of the women affected by these gross actions. And I want to thank them for their bravery to come forward."
Hillary Clinton
Clinton said that she "was shocked and appalled by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. The behavior described by women coming forward cannot be tolerated. Their courage and the support of others is critical in helping to stop this kind of behavior."
Barack and Michelle Obama
"Michelle and I have been disgusted by the recent reports about Harvey Weinstein," the Obamas said in a statement. "Any man who demeans and degrades women in such fashion needs to be condemned and held accountable, regardless of wealth or status. We should celebrate the courage of women who have come forward to tell these painful stories. And we all need to build a culture -- including by empowering our girls and teaching our boys decency and respect -- so we can make such behavior less prevalent in the future."
Judi Dench
"Whilst there is no doubt that Harvey Weinstein has helped and championed my film career for the past 20 years, I was completely unaware of these offenses which are, of course, horrifying and I offer my sympathy to those who have suffered, and whole-hearted support to those who have spoken out," she said in a statement.
Leonardo DiCaprio
"There is no excuse for sexual harrassment or sexual assault-- no matter who you are and no matter what profession," DiCarpio said in a Facebook Post. "I applaud the strength and courage of the women who came forward and made their voices heard."
Jessica Chastain
"I was warned from the beginning" about Weinstein, she said in a tweet. "The stories were everywhere. To deny that is to create an environment for it to happen again."
Julianne Moore
Colin Firth
“It must have been terrifying for these women to step up and call him out. And horrifying to be subjected to that kind of harassment. I applaud their courage."
Tamron Hall
Blake Lively
The actress said that she was unaware of the abuse but admitted that "it's devastating to hear."
"It's important that women are furious right now. It's important that there is an uprising. It's important that we don't stand for this and that we don't focus on one or two or three or four stories. It's important that we focus on humanity in general and say, 'This is unacceptable.'"
Julia Roberts
Ryan Gosling
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