Harvey Weinstein Is Using An Email From Ben Affleck To Discredit Rose McGowan Rape Claims

Harvey Weinstein's lawyer is using an old email from Ben Affleck to discredit allegations made by Rose McGowan that Weinstein raped her at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997. McGowan first named Weinstein in a series of tweets in October 2017, seemingly breaking her non-disclosure agreement, and went on to detail the alleged incident in her new book Brave — as well as the fact that she told her Phantoms costar, Affleck, what happened immediately after.

"Fuck it," he allegedly replied. "I told him to stop doing that."

However, in an email shared by Weinstein's lawyer (which was sent before the initial Weinstein accusations were printed in the New York Times in October), Affleck told the producer he had "no knowledge" of the incident.

"She never told me nor did I ever infer that she was attacked by anyone," the email reads. "Any accounts to the contrary are false. I have no knowledge about anything Rose did or claimed to have done."

"Fuck you you fucking douche bag loser from hell," McGowan wrote on Twitter in response to the lawyer's statement. "You will burn. You will be an empty suit coffin. You go fall off the planet you fuck."

After the accusations from over 80 women, which came in waves these past few months after the New York Times detailed three decades of alleged harassment against actresses, employees, models, and interns, Weinstein was fired from the Weinstein Company's board. Weinstein has denied any accusations of nonconsensual sex.

Affleck has had to grapple with his own accusations of inappropriate conduct, which he addressed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in November.

"What I was accused of by a woman was touching her breast while I gave her a hug. I don't remember it, but I absolutely apologise for it. I certainly don't think she's lying or making it up," Affleck told Colbert. "This is just the kind of thing that we have to, as men, I think, in this, as we become more aware of this, be really, really mindful of our behaviour, and hold ourselves accountable."

Refinery29 has reached out to Affleck and McGowan for comment.

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