Harvey Weinstein is suing the company he founded in order to get access to emails he says will exonerate him over claims of sexual abuse.
The producer, who has been accused of either sexual assault or harassment by more than 50 women, filed a lawsuit against the Weinstein Company in Delaware chancery court on Thursday. According to documents uploaded by Variety, the suit alleges that the firm has denied Weinstein access to documents that are “uniquely personal” to him.
“Mr Weinstein believes that his email account – which is the primary, if not only, account he used during the term of his employment by the company – will contain information exonerating him,” the complaint read.
The suit claims that, while the board of the Weinstein Company has sought extensive records from Weinstein, including his mobile phone data, it has refused to provide personal information that he says he is entitled to. In addition to his email account, Weinstein has also demanded access to his personnel file, parts of which he alleges have been leaked to the media to discredit him. Weinstein is also seeking to pursue legal action against the company for wrongful termination, and says that access to the documents will assist him in his claim.
By accessing the materials, Weinstein hopes to protect his 20% stake in the company, which he claims could be sold for less than it is worth because of the threat of unsubstantiated or false allegations. In a letter attached to the complaint, Weinstein’s attorney, Patricia Glaser, accused the board of “a knee-jerk pursuit of a fire sale of the company, all before completing a thorough investigation to discern exactly what did or did not occur”.
Weinstein was fired by the board of the Weinstein Company on 8 October after it learned of new information regarding his conduct. The producer is currently under investigation by police in London, New York and Los Angeles over the allegations against him, which have been made by a number of women, including Angelina Jolie and Lupita Nyong’o. A spokesperson for Weinstein says that he denies all allegations of unconsensual sex made against him.
On Thursday, one of Weinstein’s most high-profile accusers, the actor Ashley Judd, spoke for the first time about her experience with the producer, claiming that she tried to bargain with him to escape from his hotel room. “There’s this constant grooming, negotiation going on. I thought no meant no. I fought with this volley of noes, which he ignored. Maybe he heard them as maybe, maybe he heard them as yeses. Maybe they turned him on,” Judd told ABC’s Diane Sawyer.
The suit is the second to be filed against the Weinstein Company this week. On Tuesday, actor and model Dominique Huett filed a claim that accused the firm of “aiding and abetting” Weinstein in his “repeated acts of sexual misconduct”. Huett claims that members of the company board, including Weinstein’s brother, Bob, were aware of the confidential settlements that the producer is alleged to have reached with multiple women and did nothing to prevent further incidents.
The Guardian has contacted the Weinstein Company for comment.
