Harvey Weinstein has broken his silence to vehemently deny allegations made by former model Kaja Sokola that he sexually assaulted her in 2002 when she was just 16.
“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 to the Daily Mail through his representative.
“There is no truth to me having met this woman in 2002,” Weinstein stated.
“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,” Weinstein's attorney Imran H. Ansari told the outlet.
The disgraced movie mogul, currently behind bars at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in Los Angeles, is serving a 23-year sentence after he was convicted in 2020 in New York for raping an actress in 2013 and sexually assaulting a production assistant at his apartment in 2006.
The ex-Hollywood producer is scheduled to go on trial on October 10 in Los Angeles where he faces 11 charges of rape and sexual assault from five women, which he denies.
Kaja Sokola has one of the last pending misconduct lawsuits against Harvey Weinstein, which she filed in 2019.
‘Nobody's Untouchable’
Kaja Sokola, 35, currently working as a psychologist in her native Poland, was a teen model living in New York in September 2002 when she claims she met the 50-year-old Weinstein at an event hosted by her agency, NEXT Model Management. She alleged in her 2019 lawsuit that Weinstein's driver picked her up a few days later and dropped them off at his SoHo apartment. It was there that Weinstein allegedly forced the young girl to undress as he “grabbed at her breasts before ejaculating on the floor.”
Sokola claimed that the powerful producer had blocked her from trying to leave his flat and subsequently threatened to destroy her career.
“Harvey Weinstein made clear that refusing his sexual demands would mean giving up the opportunity to make it in Hollywood,” the suit claimed.
The woman’s allegations were recently reiterated by her in an interview with Rolling Stone. She has also accused Walt Disney Company, which owned Weinstein's production company Miramax from 1993 to 2010, of failing to investigate his actions.
Sokola said in her interview she hopes to hold Weinstein accountable with her suit, adding, “Nobody's untouchable right now.”
She addressed the ex-mogul’s closest circle, asking:
“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.”
After Weintein’s denial of accusations levelled by Sokola, her attorneys Douglas Wigdor and Kevin Mintzer released a statement to the Daily Mail, saying:
“Mr. Weinstein should focus his energies on his next multi-victim rape trial in California.”
‘It Never Happened’
Previous lawsuits pertaining to Weintein’s sexual misconduct allegations had been jointly settled in a deal involving accusers, unsecured creditors and former Weinstein Co. employees after the company filed for bankruptcy in March 2018 and sold off most of its assets. Claims dating from before that time have reached the statute of limitations.
However, Sokola filed her lawsuit under a 2019 New York law. In February 2019, New York State passed a “lookback window,” the Child Victims Act (CVA), extending the statute of limitations for survivors of child sexual abuse in criminal and civil cases in New York.
Weinstein's legal team is insisting that if their client had, indeed, met Sokola, it could not have been until 2005, when she was 19. This would have made her not eligible to sue under New York State’s Sexual Abuse Lookback Statutes.
“I understand the motivations of trying to use the statute for a civil suit, but it never happened,” Weinstein told the publication via his spokesman. Furthermore, his representative added that the film producer did not own the SoHo apartment described in Sokola's lawsuit until 2005.
Weinstein's attorney Imran H. Ansari has insisted there is enough evidence to prove that his client did not meet Sokola in 2002.
“Importantly, Mr. Weinstein strongly contends that Ms. Sokola’s allegation of being 16-years-old when she met him is incorrect,” he stated, adding that “a timeline of events, corroborated by other evidence, including witness testimony, will refute Ms. Sokola’s allegations of sexual abuse as a minor,” rendering her ineligible to sue under the Child Victims Act.