New reporting from a New York Times media columnist casts doubt on prominent journalist Ronan Farrow’s allegations that Hillary Clinton sought to kill reporting on disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
In a scathing column about Farrow’s reporting, Ben Smith found that Farrow “appears to have misinterpreted” a call from a top Clinton aide about Weinstein.
According to Farrow’s book, Catch and Kill, he received an “ominous” call from Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill in 2017, saying the Weinstein reporting was “a concern.”
Farrow told the Financial Times last year that Clinton tried to distance herself from him when she discovered he was investigating sexual assault allegations against Weinstein.
“It’s remarkable how quickly even people with a long relationship with you will turn if you threaten the centers of power or the sources of funding around them,” said Farrow, who worked for Clinton at the State Department.
“Ultimately, there are a lot of people out there who operate in that way. They’re beholden to powerful interests and if you go up against those interests, you become radioactive very quickly,” he said.
Merrill said Clinton was planning to do a documentary with Weinstein, and her team was trying to determine if damaging information was about to be published about him, according to Smith.
Smith said he saw text messages between Merrill and another reporter that supported Merrill’s account.
“We’re about to do business with him unless this is real,” Merrill wrote on July 6 to the reporter.
“In other words, Mr. Merrill was trying to protect his boss, not Mr. Weinstein,” Smith wrote.
Smith asked Farrow’s publisher, Little, Brown and Company, to comment on what he called the Clinton “conspiracy.”
“Ronan‘s book recounts his own experiences,” said Sabrina Callahan, the executive director of publicity for Little, Brown and Company.
Clinton has defended her association with Weinstein, who was a major donor to her 2016 presidential campaign, claiming she was unaware of Weinstein’s behavior toward women. Several women have said they warned Clinton’s campaign about the sexual misconduct.
