Written by Holly Yan, CNN
Accusers of sex abuse alleged by Harvey Weinstein have renewed their demand for answers to decades-old allegations about the Hollywood mogul’s ties to a British billionaire.
The three women — identified as Grace Wardlaw, Lauren Sivan and Blake Huffman — issued a statement Thursday in conjunction with a report published by The New York Times.
A 2015 court filing revealed that close associates of Epstein had given $75,000 in cash to Weinstein to help pay for his defense following an initial sexual assault allegation by a Hungarian model and actress, the women said.
The statement was posted on the website of the Center for Investigative Reporting, which was one of several outlets that obtained the court documents obtained through a public records request.
According to the Times report, Weinstein has denied allegations of sexual abuse, which the Weinstein Company announced it was severing ties with him following the report.
However, the women claimed the investigation provides a clear picture of his sexual relationships with Epstein and the child sex ring run by the convicted pedophile.
‘I saw him naked’
“In 2005 I went to the Palm Beach home of Jeffrey Epstein and met Harvey Weinstein there,” Huffman told the Times. “I saw him naked and I saw him masturbating in the shower.”
Weinstein and Epstein have been on a list of individuals and groups identified by the government as being either associated with, or involved in, Epstein’s trafficking and other crimes, according to the Times.
More than 20 “persons of interest” have come under investigation, according to the report.
The women’s attorneys, however, claim they have been ignored by law enforcement and the media.
“While he’s gotten away with so much, and gotten away with it for so long, we’re getting here. The story isn’t over,” Louise Minahan, the attorney for Grace Wardlaw, told the Times.
According to a report issued by the Center for Investigative Reporting, in 2014, CIR investigators sought answers from the FBI’s former top official at the Miami Field Office in a search for files related to Epstein’s case.
But according to CIR, months after correspondence was sent to the FBI’s regional office in New York, the correspondence was denied to CIR without an explanation.
“If information about Mr. Weinstein came across the desk of the FBI in Miami, Miami field office, that I know of, it would have been brought to attention of Mr. Weinstein himself,” CIR investigative reporter Danny Cevallos told CNN in an interview this week.
The fate of Weinstein’s private jets
In July, Weinstein faced new allegations of sexual assault after The New York Times and The New Yorker published exposes detailing decades of sexual harassment and sexual assault.
The veteran producer has been fired from his own studio and his studio is reportedly working on a plan to sell his film empire to help pay off his $160 million sex assault and rape case settlement costs.