A producer who was involved with the Ronan Farrow story that Bloom helped get blocked at NBC speaks out; “Bloom is trying to rewrite history.”
Rich McHugh, a former NBC producer who worked with journalist Ronan Farrow, lashed out at attorney Lisa Bloom on Friday for her previous work for now convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein.
“She had long been working on behalf of victims, and then went to the dark side, and represented Harvey Weinstein,” McHugh said during an interview with Law&Crime Network host Jesse Weber. (See the full interview here). “In my opinion, that’s unforgivable with what she does. And I think she’s trying to rewrite history.”
Bloom gave Law&Crime a version of the same weak apology she’s peddled before. McHugh, Farrow and Rose McGowan are not buying it. Bloom is also dealing with the collapse of her high-profile web of cases against Greek billionaire Alki David, who defeated her 8-4 in a jury trial in September. Bloom recently postponed a planned retrial of that case indefinitely–essentially throwing her client under the bus. Weinstein was convicted two weeks ago in a New York state court of rape in the third degree in the case of former actress Jessica Mann. He was also convicted of criminal sexual act in the first degree in the case of former production assistant Mimi Haleyi. Bloom, who is well known for representing women against powerful men accused of sexual misconduct, was implicated in the Weinstein scandal from the very beginning, when The New York Times released a bombshell report in Oct. 2017. She was working with the disgraced Hollywood mogul as an adviser and even commented in the article, but she soon resigned. It was later revealed that Bloom had allegedly plotted to help Weinstein stop journalists from reporting on the sexual misconduct allegations, and that she came up with various ways to discredit accusers, in particular actress Rose McGowan.
“I feel equipped to help you against the Roses of the world, because I have represented so many of them,” she wrote in a memo, according to the book, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.
“It was clear as day at a certain point what her role is,” McHugh said. “It’s documented. She admitted to Ronan directly. When we were trying to figure out her allegiance about who was [Weinstein’s] people, and Ronan confronted her, and she said, ‘Ronan, I am his people.’”
The bulk of McHugh’s interview focused on his and Farrow’s story of how NBC squashed their initial work on investigating the Weinstein allegations. He talked about the moment that he decided to leave the company.
Bloom’s case Elizabeth Taylor v. Alki David ended in a mistrial in September 2019. The jury favored David 8-4, and told the press afterwards that they did not find Taylor credible, or her main “MeToo” witness Chasity Jones. In fact, David and his attorney Ellyn Garoflo showed the jury many outright lies by Taylor and Jones under oath. According to the jury foreman, David convinced the jury that Bloom and her mother Gloria Allred have been involved in a
conspiracy to fix witnesses among a group of disgruntled employees who had access to an illegally leaked past settlement.
Bloom moved to postpone the retrial of Taylor v. David indefinitely. The Judge in L.A. Superior Court even said, “You realize it will be years before this can be rescheduled right?”
Insiders with knowledge of the Bloom Firm believe that Bloom has realized she can’t win the case and doesn’t want an outright loss to cast doubts on the other connected cases, all of which are being appealed by David and his team. Most likely Mama Allred put pressure on Bloom to torpedo her own case. Taylor would be in a good position to sue Bloom for malpractice once this all comes out—though of course that would expose her further if she lied under oath at Bloom’s behest.