Amid New Allegations & Campaign Donation Returns, Harvey Weinstein's Legal Advisor Resigns

Harvey Weinstein's lawyer has resigned as more accusations about the award-winning producer's history of repeated sexual harassment become public.

The high-profile lawyer, Lisa Bloom, who according to Variety built her career on defending women, publicly announced her resignation this afternoon over Twitter saying that it was her understanding that Weinstein and the board of his company are in the process of coming to an agreement.

Bloom faced a barrage of criticism from social media and from her mother, Gloria Allred, calling out the hypocrisy of her representing Weinstein after a career of elevating the voices of women. This comes after an extensively researched exposé by The New York Times alleged that Weinstein sexually harassed actresses, employees, models, and interns over the course of the last 30 years.

The Weinstein Company board is seeing turnover as well. On Friday, the company issued a statement announcing that it had ordered an independent investigation, which included the retention of outside lawyers. One-third of the all-male board have resigned in light of the allegations. Weinstein is on an indefinite leave of absence.

Multiple women have come forward, including actress Ashley Judd in the original New York Times story as well as actress Rose McGowan, who reportedly settled with Weinstein for $100,000 two decades ago as one of at least eight previous sexual harassment claims brought against Weinstein. Television journalist Lauren Sivan has also decided to speak publicly about an alleged incident of sexual harassment involving Weinstein.

According to Sivan in her on the record interview with HuffPost, the incident took place a decade ago and involved Weinstein trapping her in the hallway of a restaurant while he masturbated in front of her until he ejaculated after a failed attempt to kiss her. A news anchor at the time, Sivan kept quiet about the alleged harassment, saying she was fearful of the power Weinstein had in the media.

Among those expressing their disapproval through action is MSNBC's Morning Joe co-host, Mika Brzezinski, announcing that she wants out of her three-book deal with Weinstein Books unless Harvey Weinstein resigns. In a series of three tweets reported by Deadline, Brzezinski had this to say: “Harvey Weinstein needs to resign from his companies, face his sickness, and go into a long, self-imposed exile. Authors, actors, and moviemakers should not work for any Weinstein company until he resigns. Not a close call. I have a three-book deal with Weinstein Books, through Hachette. I can’t go forward with those books unless Harvey resigns.”

Also choosing the "actions speak louder than words" route are Democratic lawmakers who returned Weinstein's donations after the exposé was released. According to TIME magazine, the producer had regularly contributed to the Democratic National Committee since the '90s.

Following the New York Times story, Weinstein issued a statement addressing the accusations and apologizing for his behavior. As of now, Harvey Weinstein is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the Weinstein Company.

However, amid the allegations and apology, his attorney Charles Harder still makes plans to file a lawsuit against the New York Times for what he calls, "a story that is saturated with false and defamatory statements about Harvey Weinstein." Claiming that it relied on hearsay and faulty reports, Harder announced that they would donating all the proceeds of the lawsuit to women's organizations.