Harvey Weinstein appears to harass woman in Sky News obtained video
Sky News’ Hannah Thomas-Peter exclusively interviews Melissa Thompson about a 2011 video of Harvey Weinstein allegedly behaving inappropriately with Thompson
A 2011 video obtained by Sky News features disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein asking a woman who later accused him of rape if he could "flirt" with her during a business meeting.
According to the outlet, Melissa Thompson was at The Weinstein Company offices in New York back in Sept. 2011, where she was trying to make a business pitch to Weinstein. Per Sky News, they had met briefly once, but this was their first formal meeting, and as part of the demo Thompson recorded it.
Sky News reports Wednesday that Thompson alleges that hours after the meeting Weinstein reportedly raped her.
A rep for Weinstein did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
In the video, Thompson, who told the outlet that she thought she was meeting with the marketing team, is seen meeting with Weinstein in an office alone. The footage then shows Thompson offering a handshake, but Weinstein hugs her instead, running his hand up and down her back.
"So am I allowed to flirt with you?" Weinstein asks Thompson to which she replies: "Ummm we'll see, a little bit."
"A little bit, not much right? Okay, then alright, I won't," Weinstein responds.
When asked if she thinks she encouraged Weinstein, during her interview with Sky News, Thompson said: "I don't think I purposely encouraged him."
She continued: "At first I tried to volley a little bit with him. If he made a comment, I would try to catch it and return it in a way that felt a little safer than the way he threw it at me.
She adds: "Now I see he's trying, in any way he can, move me into that zone of comfortable then uncomfortable and confused, and vulnerable, and recognizing that he's powerful and I'm not, and that I need this deal from him, and he has the power to give it to me."
Thompson alleged to Sky News that during their meeting, Weinstein put his hand under the table and under her dress.
"At first, I was trying to save face a bit... trying to kind of manage the situation," Thompson told the outlet. "There was a combination of confidence and naivety that led me to this dynamic that we see now, watching back."
In the video, during Thompson's pitch, she is seen leaning towards Weinstein and touching his shoulder while asking him: "Data's so hot, right?" Weinstein responds: "It is hot. You're hot."
Weinstein then reached under the table, out of view from the camera, which is when Thompson claims Weinstein ran his hand up her leg under her dress, reports Sky News.
"Let me have a little part of you," Weinstein says in the video, according to Sky News. Although it is not clear what he is doing off camera.
"Give it to me. It's okay, would you like to do it some more?" he asks.
Thompson replies: "A little bit... a little high, that's a little high, that's a little high."
When asked by Sky News what she would tell people, who might watch the video, and say she was flirting with Weinstein, Thompson said: "It was more tricky. I think it's possible to judge from looking at it."
She continued: "I worked in Wall Street before I went to business school, and I worked in an environment that was heavily male-dominated... I thought I could handle it, I had never met anyone that I couldn't handle... until Harvey Weinstein."
At the end of the video, Weinstein is heard asking Thompson what she is doing later, telling Thompson that he has to edit a movie, but he'll "meet" her "somewhere."
"Meet you for a drink," he says. "What time?" asks Thompson, to which Weinstein replies: "It's 3:34, I'll meet you at 5:30 TriBeca Grand." "Okay," Thompson says.
In her interview, Thompson agrees with the Sky News reporter when asked if she was under the impression that the meeting was potentially to close the deal.
"It wasn't at 10 p.m. It wasn't an invitation to come to his hotel room. It was an invitation to a hotel lobby that was within blocks of the office, so that to me felt much safer than being alone with him in his office," she says.
In a statement to Sky News, responding to the video, Weinstein's attorney, Benjamin Brafman said: "Several respected journalists and trustworthy individuals have seen the entire video.
"What they shared with us is that the video, when viewed in its entirety, in context and not in select excerpts, demonstrates that there is nothing forceful, but casual - if not awkward - flirting from both parties," the statement continued. "Anything short of that is intended to make Mr. Weinstein appear inappropriate, and even exploitative.
"It was produced by Ms. Thompson to bolster her position in a civil lawsuit seeking money. This is a further attempt to publicly disgrace Mr. Weinstein for financial gain, and we will not stand for it.
"Facts do matter," the statement concluded.
As previously reported, a new lawsuit was filed against Weinstein in June, which reportedly detailed allegations from three women, one of whom was Thompson, who alleges Weinstein raped her.
In the lawsuit, Thompson claimed she met with Weinstein in 2011 to make a business pitch when the movie mogul “out-muscled” her as she tried to rebuke his physical advances, the lawsuit said, according to The Associated Press. She alleged that he held her down and raped her.
The alleged incident wasn’t reported to authorities, the lawsuit said, because Thompson “knew that Weinstein could and would destroy her if she complained about his sexual misconduct.”
Thompson said she was referred to Brafman's law firm amid allegations from dozens of women that surfaced in the fall, according to a release obtained by The Associated Press.
In a statement to Fox News at the time, Brafman said, “This firm has never represented Melissa Thompson and I personally never met with her or any of the other women named in the lawsuit.”
The new allegations came after Weinstein was indicted by a grand jury on charges of rape in the first and third degrees and criminal sexual act in the first degree, according to a statement from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
"Harvey Weinstein may have been put in handcuffs for his assault on two women, but we are working to see a day of justice for the hundreds of women who were exploited for Weinstein's sexual gratification and silenced by this ring of conspirators," Elizabeth Fegan, an attorney who worked on the lawsuit, said, according to The Associated Press.
Weinstein has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual misconduct. The allegations gained widespread public attention following two bombshell reports in October 2017, ultimately leading to Weinstein’s downfall. He has consistently denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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