Harvey Weinstein's Attorney Responds to Rose McGowan's Claims

Also quoted in the statement is an email from Ben Affleck to Weinstein saying the actor was never told or inferred that McGowan was "attacked by anyone."

Harvey Weinstein's attorney has responded to claims made by Rose McGowan on Tuesday morning during a two-part interview on ABC's Good Morning America and later on The View. In the interviews, the actress discussed her allegations of sexual assault against Weinstein and called out the "systemic" complicity extended to his studio, The Weinstein Co., referencing reports about a fund that was set up to pay off Weinstein victims. "If he had to pay out a victim $100,000, he had to pay the board back $250,000. So when I say it's a complicity machine, it is," she said.

In the recent statement, Ben Brafman, Weinstein's attorney, said, "As a general matter, Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys have refrained from publicly criticizing any of the women who have made allegations of sexual assault against Mr. Weinstein despite a wealth of evidence that would demonstrate the patent falsity of these claims."

McGowan also mentioned Ben Affleck in her interview, noting that she and the actor had a press engagement for the 1997 film Going All the Way the day after her encounter with Weinstein. "I looked at him and I must have had tears in my eyes," McGowan said of the experience. "I remember shaking and I said, 'I just came from a meeting with him,' and I said [Weinstein's] name. That's when [Affleck] said, 'God dammit, I told him to stop doing that.'"

Brafman's statement addressed McGowan's claims and called out the actress and Affleck by name: "Watching the 'performance' by Rose McGowan as she looks to promote her new book however, has made it impossible to remain quiet as she tries to smear Mr. Weinstein with a bold lie that is denied not only by Mr. Weinstein himself, but by at least two witnesses, including Ms. McGowan's own Manager at the time who Ms. McGowan claims to have confided in the day after the alleged assault and an A-list actor Ben Affleck who Ms. McGowan claims to have also told about her encounter with Mr. Weinstein shortly after the incident she now describes as 'rape,' but which in 1997 she described to her Manager as a 'consensual' act of sex."

The statement goes on to include a quote from an email Affleck sent to Weinstein regarding the incident: "She never told me nor did I ever infer that she was attacked by anyone. Any accounts to the contrary are false. I have no knowledge about anything Rose did or claimed to have done.”

Weinstein is currently being investigated by the Los Angeles, New York and London police departments, though charges have yet to be brought. More than 80 women have accused the disgraced producer of sexual misconduct, though McGowan said on The View that the number by her estimation would be "over 1,000" because "this is a lifelong career of rape for this man."

Read Brafman's full statement below.

As a general matter, Harvey Weinstein and his attorneys have refrained from publicly criticizing any of the women who have made allegations of sexual assault against Mr. Weinstein despite a wealth of evidence that would demonstrate the patent falsity of these claims. Watching the "performance" by Rose McGowan as she looks to promote her new book however, has made it impossible to remain quiet as she tries to smear Mr. Weinstein with a bold lie that is denied not only by Mr. Weinstein himself, but by at least two witnesses, including Ms. McGowan's own Manager at the time who Ms. McGowan claims to have confided in the day after the alleged assault and an A-list actor Ben Affleck who Ms. McGowan claims to have also told about her encounter with Mr. Weinstein shortly after the incident she now describes as "rape", but which in 1997 she described to her Manager as a "consensual" act of sex.

In an email to Mr. Weinstein regarding the encounter, Jill Messick says the following, “When we met up the following day, she hesitantly told me of her own accord that during the meeting that night before she had gotten into a hot tub with Mr. Weinstein. She was very clear about the fact that getting into that hot tub was something that she did consensually and that in hindsight it was also something that she regretted having done.”

Ben Affleck expressed the following in an email to Mr. Weinstein, “She never told me nor did I ever infer that she was attacked by anyone. Any accounts to the contrary are false. I have no knowledge about anything Rose did or claimed to have done.”