US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said he was unsurprised by revelations that Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed women for nearly three decades.
“I’ve known Harvey Weinstein for a very long time, I’m not at all surprised to see it,” he told reporters outside the White House.
His comments came after the New York Times published a report earlier this week which alleged Weinstein, whose company produced such hits as The King’s Speech and Django Unchained, preyed on young women hoping to break into the film industry.
The scandal was pounced on by Republicans because Weinstein has been a major backer of Democrat candidates.
Many Democrat lawmakers have since vowed to turn over their contributions from Weinstein to charity.
A prominent attorney, meanwhile, has said she is no longer representing Weinstein and a TV news anchor has become the latest person to make an allegation against the producer, after claims by actresses Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan.
Lauren Sivan detailed an alleged 2007 encounter with Weinstein in a HuffPost report on Friday.
Sivan, then working at a New York cable channel, Long Island 12, alleged that Weinstein cornered her in the hallway of a Manhattan restaurant closed to the public and masturbated in front of her.
Sivan said she had rejected an attempt by Weinstein to kiss her. “Well, can you just stand there and shut up,” she claims he responded.
On another front, Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski tweeted that “unless Harvey resigns” she will withdraw from a three-book deal she struck last summer with Weinstein Books.
Weinstein is currently on indefinite leave from the company he co-founded while an internal investigation into the claims is completed.
Trump, meanwhile, faced his own sex scandal last year when video emerged of him using lewd language to describe groping women.
Asked about the tape again yesterday, Trump dismissed it “locker room talk”, as he has done in the past.
With reporting from the Associated Press
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