Harvey Weinstein will never forget the month of October 2017.

It began on October 5, when the New York Times published a piece detailing decades of sexual harassment allegations against Weinstein.

On October 7, Weinstein’s lawyer Lisa Bloom resigned.

On the 8th, he was sacked by the board of his own company.

On the 10th, the New Yorker magazine published a piece with 13 more allegations.

That same day, his wife announced a separation. On the 12th, actress Rose McGowan claimed Weinstein had raped her.

By the end of October, there were over 80 women accusing him of misconduct.

Soon, celebrities and women all over the world were tweeting #MeToo stories of sexual harassment and a MeToo Congress Bill was proposed.

Although it seems Harvey’s career and prominence crumbled within the span of days, messy social problems usually unravel slowly over time behind the scenes.

Harvey had seen this coming from a mile away. And he did everything he could to prevent it.

For years, he relied on an aggressive team of lawyers, confidentiality agreements, financial settlements, and scare tactics to silence his victims.

In 2016, Weinstein had caught wind of two key developments that could shatter his public image.

First, he became aware of a certain New York newspaper working on a piece about his sexual exploits. He wanted to do everything possible to stop the publication.

Second, a memoir by actress Rose McGowan was in the works that might shed further light on incidents he preferred be kept private. He wanted details about her book.

In the fall of 2016, he engaged private intelligence agencies, Kroll and Black Cube, to target a list of actresses and journalists and keep the situation under control.

Photo from Black Cube’s website

Black Cube promotes itself as “a select group of veterans from the Israeli elite intelligence units including former officers of Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies.”

They promised Weinstein, who they referred to as “Mr. X”, a dedicated team of “expert intelligence officers” including avatar operators who would create fake identities on social media as well as operations experts skilled in social engineering.

Weinstein’s dealings with the private investigators were handled by law firms to help ensure protection under attorney-client confidentiality privileges. Ideally, the investigative materials they dug up wouldn’t even have to be presented in courts.

The intelligence agencies took an elaborate approach using tactics outlined in the Social Intelligence Blueprint.

One persuasion framework used by the CIA is the MICE model. MICE suggests appealing to four basic human motivators — Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego.

Weinstein’s team would use all four on actresses and journalists as appropriate.

Money was a relatively straightforward one. But victims with greater clout and financial standing could not be easily paid off.

was a relatively straightforward one. But victims with greater clout and financial standing could not be easily paid off. Ideology works by appealing to goals that already motivate the victim. The agents would pose as allies sympathetic to the victims to get them talking.

works by appealing to goals that already motivate the victim. The agents would pose as allies sympathetic to the victims to get them talking. Coercion involved a threat such as dangling negative consequences if someone does not cooperate. Weinstein’s team would acquire private information to construct detailed profiles of their targets for potential blackmail.

involved a threat such as dangling negative consequences if someone does not cooperate. Weinstein’s team would acquire private information to construct detailed profiles of their targets for potential blackmail. Ego involved giving people a sense of self-importance and superiority. Working for The Harvey Weinstein could be very validating. It also involved appealing to motivations for revenge. Befriend a target’s enemy, and cooperate to take her down.

One of the key targets was Rose McGowan, whose memoir Brave was slated for release in January 2018. She had wanted to shine a light on how the business of Hollywood was built on systemic misogyny.