Weinstein's office kept list of female ‘friends of Harvey', ex-aide tells trial
Harvey Weinstein's assistants kept a list of female 'friends of Harvey' to invite to events and sometimes considered them a special category for guest lists, an ex-aide has said at the former film mogul's sex crimes retrial.
'A 'friend of Harvey' was a woman that he'd meet at events or parties or festivals or – somewhere,' said Elizabeth Perz, one of his executive assistants from 2011 to 2013.
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The then-married Weinstein asked his assistants to invite these women to events, Ms Perz said.
Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan in New York (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
It was such common practice that Weinstein's subordinates had a shorthand: 'Might as well add a FOH column,' Ms Perz advised colleagues by email as they discussed the attendee list for some 2013 awards season events.
Jurors were shown a roster of well over a dozen names, which Ms Perz said was kept in the office at Weinstein's now-defunct production company.
The names were broken down by geography, such as 'LA Friends' or 'Cannes/Etc/all invites.'
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One 'LA Friends' entry was Jessica Mann, one of the three women whose allegations are at the heart of the retrial.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty.
The once-powerful studio boss, who became a prime target of the #MeToo movement's campaign against sexual misconduct, maintains that he has never had sexual encounters that were not consensual.
During the last five years, he was convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California.
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But he is on trial again because an appeals court found that his New York trial was tainted by prejudicial evidence and overturned that conviction.
He is charged with raping Ms Mann in 2013 and forcing oral sex on two other women, separately, in 2006.
Harvey Weinstein in state court in Manhattan in New York (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
Ms Mann, who was a hairstylist and aspiring actor when she met Weinstein in the early 2010s, is expected to give evidence in the coming days or week.
The other accusers, Miriam Haley and Kaja Sokola, have already given evidence.
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At Weinstein's 2020 trial, Ms Mann painted a complex and emotional picture of a years-long relationship that began consensually but became 'degrading' and volatile and eventually exploded into rape.
Still, she kept seeing him and sending warm messages because she wanted him to believe she 'wasn't a threat', she said.
Weinstein's lawyers at the time argued that Ms Mann willingly had a sexual liaison with him to serve her acting ambitions.
At one point during his defence's questioning in 2020, she began sobbing so forcefully that court ended early that day.
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At the retrial on Thursday, jurors saw messages that Ms Perz had sent to Ms Mann about some Oscars-related parties in 2013.
'Harvey would like to extend an invitation to you' and a friend, Ms Perz wrote.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people who alleged they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified, which Ms Sokola, Ms Haley and Ms Mann have done.
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The Guardian
19 minutes ago
- The Guardian
LA police make mass arrests as protesters defy overnight curfew
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Trump has ordered the deployment of 4,000 national guard members and 700 marines to LA after days of protests driven by anger over aggressive Ice raids that have targeted garment workers, day labourers, car washes and immigrant communities. Marines and the National Guard have no powers of arrest and are there to protect federal buildings. Newsom and the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, alleged in a lawsuit filed on Monday that Trump's takeover of the state national guard, against the governor's wishes, was unlawful. On Tuesday a federal judge declined to immediately rule on California's request for a restraining order and scheduled a hearing for Thursday. In a speech, Newsom condemned Trump for 'indiscriminately targeting hard-working immigrant families' and militarising the streets of LA, recounting how in recent days Ice agents had grabbed people outside a Home Depot, detained a nine-months-pregnant US citizen, sent unmarked cars to schools and arrested gardeners and seamstresses. 'That's just weakness masquerading as strength,' the governor said. 'If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant based only on suspicion or skin colour, then none of us are safe. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.' Newsom warned that Trump would not stop at California and encouraged people to stand up to the president. 'What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him,' he said. Trump, meanwhile, delivered a deeply partisan military speech earlier on Tuesday, calling the LA protesters 'animals' and vowing to 'liberate Los Angeles'. Speaking at a event in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to recognise the 250th anniversary of the US army, Trump made the baseless claim that the demonstrations were being led by paid 'rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion'. Trump also repeated a viral conspiracy theory that pallets of bricks were left out for protesters to hurl at police officers. On Tuesday night, hundreds of troops were transferred to LA over the objections of Democratic officials and despite concerns from local law enforcement Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, said he expected the military would remain in the city for 60 days at a cost of at least $134m. Trump said troops would remain until there was 'no danger' and said he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act. 'If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see,' he told reporters in the Oval Office. Sign up to First Thing Our US morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion California's lawsuit said: 'Trump and Secretary of Defence Hegseth have sought to bring military personnel and a 'warrior culture' to the streets of cities and towns where Americans work, go to school and raise their families. Now they have turned their sights on California, with devastating consequences.' The deployment of the national guard is strongly opposed by California Democrats, as well as by every Democratic governor in the US. Alex Padilla, the California senator, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that protests against Ice and the subsequent legal showdown between his state and the government was 'absolutely a crisis of Trump's own making'. He said: 'There are a lot of people who are passionate about speaking up for fundamental rights and respecting due process, but the deployment of national guard only serves to escalate tensions and the situation. It's exactly what Donald Trump wanted to do.' Padilla said the Los Angeles sheriff's department had not been advised of the federalisation of the national guard. He said his office had pressed the Pentagon for a justification, and 'as far as we're told, the Department of Defence isn't sure what the mission is here'. Jim McDonnell, the LA police chief, said on Monday that the department and its local partners had decades of experience responding to large-scale demonstrations and that they were confident in their ability to continue doing so. 'The arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles, absent clear coordination, presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city,' he said. The US Northern Command, or Northcom, said in a statement on Monday that marines from the Second Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division 'will seamlessly integrate' with forces 'who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area'. Northcom said the forces had been trained in de-escalation, crowd control and standing rules for the use of force, and that approximately 1,700 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a California national guard unit, were already in the greater Los Angeles area. Robert Mackey and agencies contributed to this report
Daily Mail
21 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
'These animals proudly carry other countries' flags but only burn the American flag': Trump condemns 'foreign invasion' as he prepares full anti-immigration assault on five US cities and LA enters lockdown
Donald Trump told army soldiers at Fort Bragg yesterday that Los Angeles has been invaded by 'animals burning the American flag' as he defended his decision to deploy thousands of National Guard troops to quell protests against ICE arrests. The US President was at the North Carolina military base to recognise the 250th anniversary of the US Army, but spent much of the speech railing against 'foreign enemies' trying to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from detaining immigrants. 'What you're witnessing in California is a full blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty... with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country. We're not gonna let that happen,' he said. 'We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That's what they are. 'These are animals, but they proudly carry the flags of other countries, but they don't carry the American flag. They only burn it.' The president went on to call LA 'a trash heap' with 'entire neighborhoods under control' of criminals, adding the government would 'use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order.' 'We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again,' Trump said. The ICE raids have sparked protests that brought Los Angeles to its knees, leading the mayor to introduce a lockdown from 8pm to 6am. But Trump is now set to deploy yet more ICE agents to five Democrat-run cities for sweeping arrests. The military-style units are set to storm New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and northern Virginia, MSNBC reported. Four of those five are heavily blue cities, while northern Virginia contains the Democrat enclave of Alexandria. The reports came as California governor Gavin Newsom last night delivered a harrowing prediction for the rest of the country as he blasted Trump's deployment of troops to LA in a nationally televised address. 'Look, this isn't just about protests here in Los Angeles, when Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard. He made that order apply to every state in this nation,' Newsom said, as he teared up. 'This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.' US President Donald Trump addresses a crowd of servicemen and women during a celebration open to the public in honor of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army on June 10, 2025 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina Donald Trump is set to deploy ICE tactical units to five Democrat-run areas after the riots in Los Angeles have put the city on lockdown Newsom accused Trump of 'taking a wrecking ball to our founding fathers' historic project' of three co-equal branches of government. He blamed the federal government for the ongoing crisis in LA and issued a chilling warning that chaos could soon engulf other states too. 'Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves, but they do not stop there,' Newsom warned. 'This is a president who in just over 140 days, has fired government watchdogs that could hold him accountable, accountable for corruption and fraud. He's declared a war, a war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself. Databases, quite literally, are vanishing.' reached out to the White House for a response. Some of what has happened in Los Angeles has spread to the rest of the country. In New York, at least 45 people were arrested Tuesday as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets near Foley Square in Manhattan, The New York Post reported. The NYPD ordered a level three authorization against the marchers, many of whom also carried Palestinian flags in addition to signs calling for the abolishment of ICE. Police pepper sprayed some of the demonstrators, while they threw water bottles at officers. The city's Public Advocate Jumaane Williams - second in line to the mayor's office - spoke in favor of peaceful demonstrations. Demonstrators smash the windshield of a vehicle next to a burning Waymo vehicle as protesters clash with law enforcement in the streets surrounding the federal building during a protest following federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, California Thousands of protesters also took to the streets of downtown Chicago, vandalizing cars and clashing with police on Tuesday. A driver plowed into a group of protesters in the Loop, striking at least one pedestrian, as thousands marched through downtown Chicago protesting the Trump administration's ongoing immigration raids. The driver was stuck between police vehicles on State Street. Officers wanted to guide her away from the crowd and asked her to turn right on Monroe Street, but she ignored their orders and turned left, speeding into the crowd. No information was available at the driver and its not clear the extent of any injuries suffered, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. In Portland, a small group of protesters set up camp outside an ICE facility and said they weren't leaving until their claims were addressed, KGW reported. Tons of marchers were also seen in the liberal city of Austin in deep red Texas. And in Atlanta, video showed protesters throwing fireworks at police officers as tear gas was seen being deployed. Newsom did briefly chastise protesters, whom he warned will be put in jail, during the speech trashing Trump as the state's biggest city goes on lockdown. The riot-ravaged Downtown area will be a no-go zone from 8pm to 6am on Tuesday and will continue indefinitely after violent demonstrators set fire to cars, looted buildings and attacked officers with rocks, fireworks and cement bricks in harrowing scenes of destruction. LAPD squads in riot gear began storming the streets immediately surrounding the Federal Building on Los Angeles St. in downtown Los Angeles shortly after Mayor Karen Bass's 8pm curfew went into effect. Police cars blocked off streets and uniformed officers fast marched to the location. Agitators were forced back half a block from the location but still swarmed the area. The intense tactical operation continued as officers, including mounted police, created so-called skirmish lines to push rioters away from other federal buildings on the same block. witnessed cars with their lights off pulling up a block away. Four agitators wearing matching black hoodies and face masks piled out of each vehicle and began moving towards the lines of police. Despite the curfew order having been called, some protestors - waving flags and yelling - defiantly stared down police who watched on and stood their ground rather than make arrests. One protestor, a man aged in his early 20s with a Mexican flag draped over his shoulders, told Daily Mail: 'I know my own rights and am willing to be arrested unjustly. I have a right to be here and protest.' People began chanting and cheering as motorcyclist performed donuts and burnouts in front of officers. White LAPD buses arrived on scene at 8:50pm as officers made plans to make arrests. A tipping point was reached at 9:05pm as police began making arrests outside the Federal Building. About a dozen people were arrested by cops and made to face a wall with their hands behind their backs and tied with zip ties before being marched on a white LAPD bus. Bizarrely, public buses still operated two blocks away from the dramatic scene. Bass said the curfew is expected to last several days and will encompass a square mile radius around the epicenter of the violence in Downtown LA. 'If you do not live or work in downtown LA avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted,' Bass said. For five days now, rioters have wreaked havoc on communities as they railed against Trump 's efforts to rid the city of illegal migrants. They were only further enraged when Trump gave orders to send 700 Marines and 4,100 National Guard troops in to take over policing efforts and assist the LAPD. Bass revealed at least 23 businesses have been looted during the ongoing violence and condemned some of the horrifying images which have emerged from the days of carnage. But Bass said the curfew was contained to where the violence was most apparent, noting: 'Some of the imagery of the protests and the violence gives the appearance as though this is a city wide crisis and is not.' She hopes that by imposing a curfew and declaring a local emergency, she can 'stop the vandalism, stop the looting.' 'A curfew has been in consideration for several days, but clearly after the violence that took place last night and just the extensive widespread nature of the vandalism, we reached a tipping point.' While Bass refrained from locking down the entire Downtown, the LAPD has this week repeatedly issued alerts listing Downtown Los Angeles as 'unlawful assembly' zones in an effort to rid the area of any and all protesters. The regions impacted by the lockdown span from the five freeway to the 110 freeway, and from the 10 freeway to the point where the 110 and the five merge. The development comes as Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to stop the LA rioters, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. 'If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see. But I can tell you, last night was terrible. The night before that was terrible,' Trump said. He repeatedly referred to 'bad, sick people' and 'agitators' he said were paid to wreak havoc. 'There are certainly areas of Los Angeles you could have called it an insurrection,' Trump said. It was terrible.' A curfew is the natural next step in efforts toward regaining control of the city, as the LAPD ramps up arrests and cracks down on protesters breaching unlawful assembly orders. Hordes of protesters were zip-tied and forced onto LAPD buses en masse as authorities sought to bring an end to days of chaos and destruction. LAPD chief Jim McDonnell said protests had grown more violent as the week progressed. There were just 27 arrests on Sunday, with 40 on Sunday, 114 on Monday and nearly 200 by 6pm on Tuesday. He said public safety personnel, journalists and homeless people would be exempt from the order. The arrival of Trump's military reinforcements brought its own set of challenges on Tuesday, with furious Governor Newsom filing an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order. 'I just filed an emergency motion to block Trump's illegal deployment of Marines and National Guard in Los Angeles,' he said on X. 'Trump is turning the U.S. military against American citizens. The courts must immediately block these illegal actions.' The state said the order would 'prevent the use of federalized National Guard and active duty Marines for law enforcement purposes on the streets of a civilian city.' 'Federal antagonization, through the presence of soldiers in the streets, has already caused real and irreparable damage to the City of Los Angeles, the people who live there, and the State of California,' the filing stated. 'They must be stopped, immediately.' A judge denied the motion and instead granted the Trump administration an extension of time to respond to Newsom's filing. The federal government now has until 2pm on Wednesday to file its response. Newsom will then have an opportunity to file its opposition ahead of a hearing at 1.30pm Thursday. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles will cost at least $134 million and last 60 days. 'We stated very publicly that it's 60 days because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we're not going anywhere,' he said. 'Thankfully, unlike the previous administration, we've got a 13 percent increase in our defense budget, and we will have the capability to cover down on contingencies, which is something the National Guard and the Marines plan for. 'So we have the funding to cover down on contingencies, especially ones as important as maintaining law and order in a major American city. As far as training, all of the units on the ground have been fully trained in their capabilities of what they're executing on the ground.'
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Hyper-prolific rapper Boldy James: ‘I never settled for the cards life dealt me. I've always been the dealer'
In the brief window between my conversation with Detroit rapper Boldy James and you reading this sentence, it is likely that the 42-year-old MC will have surprise-released at least one new album on to streaming platforms. This year alone, he has already released seven records. A planned eighth is due in July, but who knows what might pop up in between. 'My father always told me you've gotta work twice as hard because you can't expect something for nothing in this life!' Boldy says of a work rate that can easily result in 20 new songs being completed in the studio over a 24-hour period. His combative verses, as cutting and direct as Don Corleone whispering instructions to a made man, have earned him critical adoration and elicited high-profile co-signs from hip-hop figureheads including Earl Sweatshirt, Nas, Westside Gunn, the late Mac Miller and producer the Alchemist, while fans are intrigued to know how he remains so prolific. Boldy calls his release strategy 'flooding the market' – tactics he learned from his days caught up selling drugs on Detroit's West Side. 'My homie worked the track – which was a long stretch filled with junkies – from 3am to 6am. He might make $5,000 [£3,700] per night. It might have taken my dad a few months to earn that same cash, so I ended up doing it too. I've never been no sleepyhead. I used to sell drugs all night and then go to my class to take an exam. No problem.' Boldy describes his days selling narcotics on cold street corners with vivid cinematic flair: on the spooky new trap song Aspen, he jokes that his 'Mexican plug' – slang for a prestigious international drugs source – looks a lot like the late civil rights activist Cesar Chavez. Is that true? Boldy laughs: 'Allegedly.' He looks back on this part of his life as a reflection of his resourcefulness. 'I never just settled for the cards life was dealing me,' he says. 'I've always been more like the dealer.' A student of 1990s mafioso rap, a teenage Boldy fed off the confidence of artists such as the Notorious BIG and Erick Sermon. 'I like it when men have firm handshakes and don't whine too much,' he says. He started releasing music independently in the late 2000s, a sound built around warm nostalgia and sleepy depression. Boldy can be famously sedate in interviews, but today he's lively and open. He usually works with a single producer per record, giving his albums an unusual cohesiveness in a collaboration-heavy genre. Produced by Detroit 'sound healer' Sterling Toles, the soul stirring spiritual jazz sermon of Mommy Dearest (A Eulogy), one of Boldy's most experimental songs, reflects on a childhood of serious neglect due to a mother lost to addiction. 'Tellin' me that you was on your way to come see me / And left me sittin' on the porch in the rain, freezing,' he raps amid stuttery saxophone that can't decide if it wants to soar or whimper. But when we talk, Boldy doesn't want to reflect too much on that difficult past. It's all in his music. He says his 2022 song Power Nap is among the finest examples of his lyricism. 'We went from childhood dreams to federal nightmares' … 'Six sleeper bags on the grass it's a slumber party,' he raps, his vocals evoking those of Mobb Deep's Prodigy as he burrows into unorthodox pockets of drumless soul-rap. 'On one level, six sleeping bags makes you reminisce on your childhood and having those sleepovers to play Nintendo with all your friends, right?' he asks. 'But it's also because I could easily roll up the street and see six young Black males on the grass, laid out dead. I represent the hood struggle for real. No gimmicks.' Today, he cares most about showing his six children 'the whole world,' he says. 'I want to make sure I'm always sharing wisdom, because you can get took out at any moment. Right now I'm jumping out half a million dollar cars, wearing $400,000 [£300,000] worth of jewels. It means I've got a lot to lose.' Testament to Boldy's stature is the fact that he's sitting on an unreleased collaborative album with J Dilla rumoured to be called Drug Dilla. Boldy has previously said that the late Detroit beatmaker's estate had given him access to some of the last beats the producer ever crafted – putting him among the small group of MCs (Busta Rhymes, Ghostface Killah, MF Doom, Phat Kat) to get posthumous approval from his camp. Boldy has said the album is finished, but I'm warned in advance not to ask about a release date. Yet he offers a telling answer on why his flow might fit so well over Dilla's unconventional production. 'I rap for real niggas who don't care about club music. That's more my lane. I got like a left-handed type of flow anyways, so not a lot of people can really bounce or groove to my shit. There's a time and a place for my music.' Asked what that is, Boldy concludes: 'It's music made for people trying to process their past and turn it into a net positive. Play it on a road trip while driving to visit family. But I don't expect everybody to relate either … because not everybody grew up around money and murder.' Boldy James and Nicholas Craven's new single, Spider Webbing Windshields, is out now. An as-yet untitled album from the duo will be released in July
