Harvey Weinstein Attorney Reacts to ‘Hypocrisy’ of Asia Argento Sexual Assault Claims

The attorney for disgraced Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is branding #MeToo activist and Weinstein accuser Asia Argento a hypocrite after news broke that she paid to silence a former child actor who accused her of sexual assault.

Benjamin Brafman, the attorney for Harvey Weinstein, claims that a bombshell report from the New York Times that Italian actor-director Asia Argento sexually assaulted a 17-year-old boy in a California hotel and then settled the accusation for $380,000 should cast doubt on Argento’s own allegations against Weinstein.

“This development reveals a stunning level of hypocrisy by Asia Argento, one of the most vocal catalysts who sought to destroy Harvey Weinstein,” Brafman wrote in a statement to Fox News.

“What is perhaps most egregious, is the timing, which suggests that at the very same time Argento was working on her own secret settlement for the alleged sexual abuse of a minor, she was positioning herself at the forefront of those condemning Mr. Weinstein, despite the fact that her sexual relationship with Mr. Weinstein was between two consenting adults which lasted for more than four years,” the statement continued.

“The sheer duplicity of her conduct is quite extraordinary and should demonstrate to everyone how poorly the allegations against Mr. Weinstein were actually vetted and accordingly, cause all of us to pause and allow due process to prevail, not condemnation by fundamental dishonesty,” Brafman’s statement concluded.

Argento has been a key player in the #MeToo movement and a leading voice in the allegations against Weinstein after she became one of the first women to step forward with allegations against him.

On Sunday, just less than a year since she first came forward with accusations, the New York Times published an article claiming that it had obtained documents showing that months after she accused Weinstein, the 42-year-old reached a financial settlement with Jimmy Bennett.

The now 22-year-old Bennett claimed that in 2013, then-37-year-old Argento had sexually assaulted him in a California hotel room while they were working together on The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things. At the time, Bennett had just turned 17 and was still 10-months shy of from the legal age of consent.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is now reportedly investigating the accusations against Argento, though a spokesperson for the department told Fox News that they have been unable to locate any police reports relating to the incident.

Argento has not yet responded to the reports or the LASD investigation.