Harvey Weinstein’s accusers lose once again. Yesterday a tentative $25 million settlement deal was reached between them and the sleaze bag. It’s a crappy deal.

“After two years of legal wrangling, Harvey Weinstein and the board of his bankrupt film studio have reached a tentative $25 million settlement agreement with dozens of his alleged sexual misconduct victims, a deal that would not require the Hollywood producer to admit wrongdoing or pay anything to his accusers himself, according to lawyers involved in the negotiations.”

Yes, folks, you read the above correctly. This deal means that Sleazy Weinstein wouldn’t have to admit to doing ANYTHING wrong to ANY of his accusers. Furthermore, he won’t have to pay them out of his personal funds.

Some justice, isn’t it? That isn’t all. You see, rather than have this load of horse shit masquerading as a settlement be separated from the bankruptcy proceedings against his movie studio, it would be folded into that. Thus, all thirty women would essentially be deemed creditors. Does that seem right to you? Sure as hell doesn’t to me.

One would presume that the settlement monies, ALL of it, would be split between them all. Right? WRONG.

“More than $12 million — a quarter of the overall settlement package — would go toward some, but not all, legal costs for Mr. Weinstein; his brother, Bob; and other former members of their company’s board, the lawyers said. The board members would be insulated from future liability, and the alleged victims would drop their claims against Mr. Weinstein and other executives.”

How much money would they receive? About $500,000. Fair compensation for having been sexually assaulted and sexually harassed by Weinstein, isn’t it?

https://twitter.com/OliviaMesser/status/1204861465250979842

You know, just two years ago, the deal would’ve been $90 million.

“Two years ago, an investor group led by Maria Contreras-Sweet almost bought the assets of the Weinstein Co., then near bankruptcy, in a deal that would have included a victims’ compensation fund worth up to $90 million. The deal fell through when a civil rights lawsuit was filed by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman against Weinstein, his brother and his company for “vicious and exploitative” treatment of their employees and for failing to protect accusers.”

So, Schneiderman shafted the deal by filing that lawsuit. Yes, that’s the same Schneiderman who is now a meditation guru after resigning once the news broke of four women accusing him of physical abuse. 

So, the women in the case lost then, and they will lose now. Understandably, as you see from the tweet above, some of them aren’t thrilled with this proposed agreement. Why? There was or still is a clause in the agreement that, if a victim backs out of the settlement, she will get nothing. Not only that, but the funds that were to go to her would be handed over to Weinstein for him to use for his defense. In other words, Weinstein would benefit monetarily from victims backing out of the settlement agreement. That isn’t right on any level.

We’ve written a great deal about Weinstein. The stories from his accusers are infuriating, appalling, and sad. What they’ve had to deal with including career loss and the mental anguish and shame Weinstein inflicted upon them is horrific. Not only that, but it was, and still is in many cases, a conspiracy of silence along with continued victim shaming. 

Assault and rape can devastate lives. The story Ronan Farrow broke remains important on every level. He continues to advocate for the many women, abused by Weinstein, who were brave enough to tell their stories.

But what do Weinstein and his slew of lawyers do? Offer a craptastic settlement deal in hopes of making all of this go away.

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/1204800511624368128

Oh, wait, what was that about his bail conditions? His bail was doubled on Wednesday. Why? Because he’d managed to game it so that he would disappear off the radar for hours at a time. Supposedly it was because of bad batteries. Really? He went through fifty seven sets of batteries and didn’t complain about any issues until he got caught? If I were the judge, I would’ve revoked his bail!

Harvey Weinstein is an evil sociopath. Period. I feel for the women who suffered at his hands as this deal will likely be the best justice they’ll ever get.

Small comfort when he won’t have to admit to doing anything wrong, isn’t it?

Feature Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk via Flickr, cropped and modified