EXCLUSIVE: Harvey Weinstein says there is ‘no truth’ to claim he sexually assaulted 16-year-old model in 2002 and argues his status as a social pariah ‘doesn’t make every allegation true’

• Weinstein spoke out after accuser Kaja Sokola gave a rare interview this week
• Sokola, now 35, was just 16 in 2002 when she says he sexually assaulted her
• She sued under temporary repeal of statute of limitations for child victims
• But Weinstein’s team insists that he could not have met her until she was 19
• ‘I know where I stand and how I am seen, nonetheless, it doesn’t make every allegation against me true,’ Weinstein told DailyMail.com from behind bars
• Sokola’s attorneys fired back: ‘Mr. Weinstein should focus his energies on his next multi-victim rape trial in California’

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has spoken out from behind bars to deny his youngest accuser’s claim that he sexually assaulted her when she was just 16.

Weinstein is currently incarcerated at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, where he is awaiting another trial on felony charges following his conviction for third-degree rape and criminal sexual assault in New York. 

In remarks to DailyMail.com on Friday, Weinstein broke his silence to deny allegations made by Kaja Sokola, a former model who gave a rare interview published earlier this week. 

Sokola was a 16-year-old teen model living in New York in September 2002, when she says that Weinstein took her to his SoHo apartment and attacked her — allegations that she detailed in a 2019 lawsuit, and the recent interview with Rolling Stone.

‘I know where I stand and how I am seen, nonetheless, it doesn’t make every allegation against me true or factual,’ Weinstein said in a statement through his representative. ‘There is no truth to me having met this woman in 2002.’

Sokola’s attorneys Douglas Wigdor and Kevin Mintzer fired back, telling DailyMail.com: ‘Mr. Weinstein should focus his energies on his next multi-victim rape trial in California.’ 

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has spoken out from behind bars to deny his youngest accuser’s claim that he sexually assaulted her when she was just 16

Kaja Sokola, now 35, was a 16-year-old teen model living in New York in September 2002, when she says that Weinstein took her to his SoHo apartment and attacked her

Sokola’s lawsuit against Weinstein is one of the few remaining in the scandal — and it also names Disney, which owned Weinstein’s production company Miramax from 1993 to 2010.  

Most other suits pertaining to misconduct allegations after 2005 were rolled together and settled in Weinstein’s bankruptcy, and most claims from before 2005 were past the statute of limitations.

However, Sokola filed her lawsuit under a 2019 New York law that offered a temporary ‘lookback window’ to victims of child sexual abuse, allowing them to file civil suits even if the normal statute of limitations had expired. 

Weinstein’s legal team insists that if he did meet Sokola, it could not have been until 2005, when she was 19 and thus not eligible to sue under the Child Victims Act’s lookback window.

‘I understand the motivations of trying to use the statute for a civil suit, but it never happened,’ said Weinstein.

Weinstein’s spokesman told DailyMail.com that the film producer did not own the SoHo apartment described in Sokola’s lawsuit until 2005. 

Weinstein is currently incarcerated at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, where he is awaiting another trial on felony charges

Weinstein’s attorney Imran H. Ansari also argued in a statement that evidence would show that he did not meet Sokola in 2002.

‘In response to the claims made by Ms. Sokola in her complaint, Mr. Weinstein categorically, and emphatically, has denied, and continues to deny, the allegations made against him,’ Ansari told DailyMail.com.

‘Importantly, Mr. Weinstein strongly contends that Ms. Sokola’s allegation of being 16-years-old when she met him is incorrect,’ he added.

Ansari argued that ‘a timeline of events, corroborated by other evidence, including witness testimony, will refute Ms. Sokola’s allegations of sexual abuse as a minor,’ precluding her from filing suit under the Child Victims Act.

Sokola said in her recent interview that she hopes to hold Weinstein as well as his alleged enablers accountable with her suit.

‘Nobody’s untouchable right now,’ she said, adding of those close to Weinstein: ‘I would ask, ‘Was it worth it?’ Because there’s no shadow of doubt in me that they knew.’ 

‘I am very curious if Harvey looks in the mirror and he still thinks, ‘All these b***hes,’ or if he has any kind of reconciliation of what he has done.’ 

Kaja Sokola was just 16 in September 2002, when she says Weinstein sexually assaulted her in his New York apartment. She is seen above in an undated photo

Sokola, now 35 and working as a psychologist in her native Poland, says she met Weinstein when she came to New York as a teen model, living away from her parents for the first time. 

She was 16, and he was 50, when she says she met him at an event hosted by her agency, NEXT Model Management. 

‘People at the event said, ‘This is the king of Hollywood, and he can make everything happen,’ Sokola recalled to Rolling Stone. ‘He said, ‘If you want to be an actress, I can see you have potential and I would like to meet with you for lunch and discuss it.’ 

‘Of course, I’ve heard, ‘Do not go out for dinners. People can put all sorts of drugs in your drinks.’ But a lunch seemed safe,’ she said.

As alleged in her lawsuit, Weinstein’s driver picked her up a few days later and dropped the two of them off at his SoHo apartment.

In the apartment, the suit claims that Weinstein forced her to remove her clothes while he ‘grabbed at her breasts’ before ejaculating on the floor. 

Afterwards, she says he blocked her from trying to leave his home then threatened her career. 

‘Harvey Weinstein made clear that refusing his sexual demands would mean giving up the opportunity to make it in Hollywood,’ the lawsuit claims. 

Kaja Sokola is seen in New York in 2010. She is now 35 and working as a psychologist in Poland

In charges that stemmed from separate allegations, a New York jury found Weinstein guilty in 2020 of rape in the third degree and a criminal sexual act in the first degree. 

Weinstein, now 70, is serving a 23-year prison sentence in that case. He is currently being held in Los Angeles awaiting trial on additional charges.

Weinstein faces 11 felony charges in California over alleged assaults on five women, which he denies. His trial there has been set for October.

In June, he was also charged in Britain with the 1996 indecent assault of a woman in London. 

It’s unclear whether that case will ever come to trial, as UK officials would have to decide whether to seek his extradition while he is already serving a lengthy sentence in the US.

In total, nearly 90 women including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Salma Hayek have accused Weinstein of harassment or assault. He denies all the allegations.

Source: Read Full Article