NEW YORK (AP) - The Latest on a lawsuit accusing Harvey Weinstein of racketeering and sexual assault (all times local):
5:15 p.m.
Miramax says it is a very different company from a dozen years ago when Harvey Weinstein was there.
The company was among defendants named in a lawsuit brought by six women who say the moviemaking mogul acted sexually inappropriately.
The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday sought class-action status. It claims Miramax and others were complicit in Weinstein’s behavior since the 1990s.
Miramax says it condemns his “unspeakable actions.” It says it has been “completely independent of Harvey” since he and his brother left The Walt Disney Co. to found The Weinstein Co. 12 years ago.
It says Miramax is a “very different company” and it is “proud of that difference.”
Attorneys for Weinstein say he “has never at any time committed an act of sexual assault.”
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1 p.m.
Lawyers for Harvey Weinstein are renewing their denials that he sexually assaulted women after a new lawsuit alleges his attempts to cover up his bad conduct amounted to racketeering.
Attorneys Blair Berk and Ben Brafman said in a statement Wednesday that Weinstein “has never at any time committed an act of sexual assault.”
They said “it is wrong and irresponsible to conflate claims of impolitic behavior or consensual sexual contact later regretted, with an untrue claim of criminal conduct.”
Six women sued Weinstein in New York on Wednesday, seeking to represent a class of “dozens, if not hundreds” of women who say they were assaulted.
It claims Weinstein and the companies he worked with colluded to conceal Weinstein’s widespread harassment and assaults.
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11:16 a.m.
Six women filed a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein on Wednesday, seeking to represent a class of “dozens, if not hundreds” of women who say they were assaulted by the movie mogul.
The lawsuit was filed at a federal court in New York claims his actions to cover up the assaults amounted to civil racketeering.
It claims Weinstein and the companies he worked with colluded to conceal Weinstein’s widespread sexual harassment and assaults.
A lawyer for Weinstein declined to comment.
According to the lawsuit, actresses and other women in the film industry were lured to industry events, hotel rooms, Weinstein’s home, office meetings or auditions under the pretense that they were to discuss a project.
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