Robert De Niro Set to Testify Against His Ex-Assistant at Gender Discrimination Court Trial

Robert De Niro's company Canal Productions is going to court over a years-long legal battle with De Niro's former assistant Graham Chase Robinson

Robert De Niro is taking the stand.

On Monday, De Niro, 80, appeared at a federal courthouse in New York City for the start of a civil trial to resolve a lawsuit filed against the actor's company Canal Productions by his former assistant, Graham Chase Robinson.

The Oscar winner is expected to testify in the trial Monday afternoon. The legal battle began when Canal Productions in 2019 filed a $6 million lawsuit against Robinson, alleging that she binge-watched Netflix shows while working and that she abused her position to inappropriately use “her employer’s fund for her personal gain.”

Robinson then sued De Niro and Canal Productions for alleged violations of the New York City Human Rights Law, claiming that De Niro directed sexist comments and conduct at her, assigned her "stereotypically female job duties that were inconsistent with her job title," and paid her less than a male employee due to gender-based stereotypes, per a release from Sanford Heisler Sharp, the law firm representing Robinson.

Robinson was first hired as De Niro's assistant at Canal Productions in 2008. She was promoted to Vice President for Production and Finance before leaving the company and also alleges that De Niro's girlfriend, Tiffany Chen, "falsely accused Robinson of being in love with De Niro."

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"De Niro then retaliated after Robinson complained, stripping Robinson of her job duties and driving her to resign," in April 2019, a release claims.

The civil trial in New York, expected to last up to two weeks, will likely feature text messages and emails shared between Chen and De Niro concerning Robinson, according to a release.

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“Ms. Robinson is ready to tell her story to the jury,” Brent Hannafan, partner at Sanford Heisler Sharp, said in a statement Monday. “Her discrimination and retaliation claims are compelling and the evidence supporting them is clear. We believe when all the testimony has been heard, the jury will agree with us that De Niro discriminated and retaliated against Ms. Robinson.”

Aside from Robinson and De Niro's testimony, the jury may also hear from De Niro's lawyer Tom Harvey, his accountant Michael Tasch, several employees who worked with Robinson at Canal between 2008 and 2019, and Chen, who De Niro has been dating since 2018. The couple announced they welcomed a child together — Gia Virginia Chen De Niro, his seventh child — in May.

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When Canal Productions originally filed a lawsuit against Robinson in 2019, the company alleged she ran up major gratuities bills on the company's American Express card, used De Niro's frequent flyer miles for personal trips and submitted false information to receive $70,000 for 96 days of "unused" vacation time.

The company also alleged that she spent tens of thousands of dollars on personal expenses and and spent “astronomical amounts of time” watching television on Netflix instead of working.

The original lawsuit filing stated Robinson was making $300,000 per year when she “abruptly resigned” from the company via an email on April 6, 2019.

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