Harvey Weinstein: Cory Booker, Patrick Leahy give away campaign donations
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‘The New York Times’ has uncovered numerous reports by women accusing Oscar-winning producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault.
USA TODAY
Harvey Weinstein is suddenly a political liability.
On Thursday, after The New York Times published sexual harassment allegations against the Hollywood producer going back almost 30 years, the fallout was quick.
While Weinstein apologized and announced a leave of absence from his company, Hollywood insiders began sharing their own tales of the mogul on Twitter and Washington began ridding itself of Weinstein’s campaign donations.
More: Rose McGowan calls Hollywood ‘complicit’ after Harvey Weinstein allegations surface
More:Read Weinstein’s full statement
On Thursday, Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, was the first to announce he’d be giving away the money Weinstein has donated to his re-election campaign committee over the years. The total was $5,600 with $2,799 of that being put toward his 2016 bid.
“Sen. Leahy is donating Mr. Weinstein’s contributions to the Women’s Fund at the Vermont Community Foundation, specifically the Change the Story Initiative,” his representative Carolyn Dwyer confirmed to USA TODAY.
On Friday, Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, joined Leahy, saying the $7,800 he received in campaign contributions Weinstein will be donated to a nonprofit group fighting sexual violence.
Booker’s donation will go to the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault,  Jeff Giertz, a Booker spokesperson, told The Record.
According to opensecrets.org, in 2016 and 2017 Weinstein also made donations to Hillary Clinton, Sen. Martin Heinrich, a Democrat from New Mexico, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut.
In the Times piece, Weinstein said he was trying to “do better.”
“I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it,” he said. “Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go.â€
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Later, Weinstein’s attorney, Charles J. Harder, told USA TODAY in a statement that the Times story was “saturated with false and defamatory statements” and they were preparing to sue.
Meanwhile, the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., called Weinstein out for what he called his “amazing deflection statement,” in which the producer said he would be channel his anger by working against the National Rifle Association and the president.
Trump Jr. summed it up as “After 3 decades of rampant sexual harassment, I’m going to go after the NRA and Trump so it’s ok… # Hollywood.”
Even the NYT‘s White House reporter, Maggie Haberman, seemed to agree with him on that score, tweeting, “Weinstein using NRA/LV horror to try to galvanize liberals in support of him despite harassment allegations.”
Contributing: Jayme Deerwester
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