In the wake of the October 2017 New York Times and New Yorker investigations into Harvey Weinstein that spawned the #MeToo movement, the disgraced movie mogul said in emails that he was “suicidal” and a “sex addict,” according to newly unsealed court documents.
The documents are part of a set of over 1,000 pages unsealed on Monday (as obtained by The New York Times) that provide insight into Weinstein’s actions in the days and weeks following the media investigation.
The documents show emails in which Weinstein also alluded to being abused when he was a child. They also included a correspondence between Weinstein and his brother Bob Weinstein, who said that Harvey belonged in “hell” for his actions. And in another email, Harvey additionally said that Jennifer Aniston should be “killed” after he believed the actress complained about him.
Weinstein’s representatives did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment on the documents. His spokesman declined to comment to the Times.
Weinstein, who was found guilty of rape and a forcible sexual act, is scheduled to appear in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday for his sentencing. He faces up to 29 years in prison. His team of attorneys is expected to file an appeal.
A draft of one of Weinstein’s unreleased public statements from Dec. 21, 2017, shows that the movie mogul also called himself an addict.
“Three months ago I could never say the following words, nor even think them to myself: I’m an addict. I’m a sex addict. I’m an anger addict. To medicate, I comfort myself with bad food. My mind sees despair. My body has trauma. Vets tell me I have PTSD,” he wrote. “Doctors tell me I’m lucky to be alive … but lucky is not how I feel. I have only despair. I have lost my family. I have daughters that will not talk to me. I have lost my wife. I have lost the respect of my ex-wife and generally almost all of my friends. I have no company. I’m alone.”
He continued in his unreleased public statements: “The #MeToo movement is powerful. Hurtful, but deserved. I read what Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd, and so many others have written. While there are two sides to these stories, truthfully, I don’t know how to tell it without being crucified…There’s a difference between assault and womanizing. There’s a difference between assault and cheating.”
Weinstein had also considered the idea of a hospital or treatment center that he described as a “St. Jude’s for Addicts” that he would build and then turn over to be run by women.
The documents also revealed that Weinstein used his influence to contact wealthy powers, including Michael Bloomberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and others asking for aid. Weinstein contacted Bloomberg on Oct. 8, 2017, saying that the board of The Weinstein Company was thinking of firing him, and he asked the former New York City mayor for a “second chance.”
“All I’m asking for is, let me take a leave of absence and get into heavy therapy and counseling whether it be in a facility or somewhere else, and allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance,” Weinstein said in part (via Vulture). “A lot of the allegations are false, and given therapy and counseling, as other people have done, I think I’d be able to get there. I could really use your support or just your honesty if you can’t support me.”
But his brother did not mince words or spare sympathy for Weinstein, according to an email from Nov. 2, 2017.
“U deserve a lifetime achievement award for the sheer savagery and immorality and inhumanness, for the acts u have perpetrated. Oh I forgot. They were all consensual. Then what are u in rehab for? Sex addiction. Don’t think so,” Bob Weinstein wrote in an email (via Vulture). “You wouldn’t have harassment, assault and rape charges u have now received, from 82 women for active consensual sex. U must be being treated for something. I guess sexual predator comes to mind.”
“U have been a sexual predator and abusive person for over fourty [sic] years,” Bob Weinstein also wrote. “F— u Harvey Weinstein. I pray there is a real hell. That’s where u belong. I suppose being you, is its own hell, if u could feel it, but no chance. OJ, didn’t kill Nicole Simpson and u had consensual sex with all those poor victimized women.”