Month: December 2017

The federal anti-racketeering law has been used since the late 1970s to bring down mob bosses. Could it be used to prosecute Harvey Weinstein?

Lawyers for six actresses who say they were sexually assaulted by the movie producer filed a lawsuit Wednesday in New York arguing that Weinstein was, essentially, a racketeer who used a legion of assistants, casting agents, security firms, gossip writers and others to supply himself with a steady stream of unwilling sexual partners and silence their complaints.

Their anti-racketeering suit was filed in a civil court, but it prompted discussions about whether prosecutors could make a similar criminal case.

Hurdles to criminal case

Maybe, said G. Robert Blakey, a professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame law school who helped write the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. But it wouldn’t be easy.

“It would take imagination and intestinal fortitude,” he said. “Prosecutors have been singularly lacking in both when it comes to women making complaints of sexual assault against powerful men.”

The law was drafted to bring down organized crime but it isn’t limited to it, Blakey said. Prosecutors have used it to go after rule-breaking Wall Street firms and corrupt government contractors. Federal prosecutors are currently using it to battle alleged bribery in global soccer in a trial ongoing in Brooklyn.

But a criminal anti-racketeering case also has many hurdles, Blakey said. Federal prosecutors would have to prove that a criminal enterprise existed, it affected interstate commerce and the defendant was associated with and engaged in racketeering. It would also have to be brought within five years of the conspiracy ending, he said. The racketeering statute is a federal law, though some states, like New York and California, have similar state laws.

Weinstein, his enablers

The women suing Weinstein in civil court say the “Weinstein Sexual Enterprise” consisted of a long list of people who either enabled Weinstein’s assaults or covered them up.

Their claims were based partly on reporting by The New York Times and the New Yorker, both of which published exposes saying that Weinstein took extraordinary steps to conceal complaints, including hiring security firms to investigate reporters working on possible stories and working with other media to discredit women who might come forward.

“The goal of the (anti-racketeering) claim is to ensure not only do we get the head of the enterprise, but also those around him who enabled his conduct, whether they tampered with witnesses or destroyed evidence after the fact, or even delivered the women to him,” said Beth Fegan, the lead lawyer on the civil suit.

Weinstein’s attorneys, Blair Berk and Ben Brafman, said in a statement that all the allegations of sexual assault against him are false.

“Mr. Weinstein has never at any time committed an act of sexual assault, and it is wrong and irresponsible to conflate claims of impolitic behavior or consensual sexual contact later regretted, with an untrue claim of criminal conduct. There is a wide canyon between mere allegation and truth, and we are confident that any sober calculation of the facts will prove no legal wrongdoing occurred. Nonetheless, to those offended by Mr. Weinstein’s behavior, he remains deeply apologetic.”

They said he never used company resources at Miramax or The Weinstein Company for personal expenses, including the payment of any legal settlements. Weinstein, though a spokesman, has also denied the allegations that he sought damaging information on the actresses.

75 accusers, no criminal charges yet

At least 75 women have accused Weinstein of unwanted come-ons, groping and outright rape. He’s under criminal investigation in Los Angeles, London, Beverly Hills and in New York. No federal officials have said they are investigating him. As of yet, no criminal charges have been brought. Some of the allegations involve encounters with women many years ago, outside the statute of limitations.

“Law enforcement is having a tough enough of a time making out a simple sexual assault case against Weinstein; the idea that they could pull off a RICO indictment is pretty far out there,” said Jeffrey Lichtman, a defense attorney who defended John “Junior” Gotti, son of the infamous “Teflon Don” or “Dapper Don,” John Gotti. 

“Prosecutors are concerned about one thing, getting a conviction and putting a bad guy away, and they attempt to do so in the simplest and straightforward manner possible due to the high beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard,” he wrote in an email.

On the other hand, a prosecutor could investigate the allegations in the civil complaint in an effort to seek broader accountability for complacency, said Julie O’Sullivan, a former federal prosecutor who teaches white collar criminal law at Georgetown Law.

“Assuming these allegations are true, if I were a prosecutor, I’d be asking: ‘Do I want to just go after him? Or do I think the larger criminal wrong involves a lot of people who facilitated this criminal conduct?’” she asked.
…

Egypt authorities announced Saturday that archaeologists had discovered two small ancient tombs in Luxor, a southern city. 

The tombs date back about 3,500 years and are located on the west bank of the river Nile.

“It’s truly an exceptional day. … The 18th dynasty private tombs were already known. But it’s the first time to enter inside the two tombs,” Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said.

Egyptian officials hope the discovery will help the country’s efforts to revive tourism.

The minister said one tomb has five entrances that lead to a rectangular hall where two burial shafts are located on the northern and southern sides of the tomb.

The tomb contains a mummy wrapped in linen, clay vessels, a collection of about 450 statues, and painted wooden funerary masks. 

Al-Anani said a cartouche carved on the ceiling bears the name of King Thutmose I of the early 18th dynasty.

The other tomb has a 6-meter burial shaft “leading to four side chambers,” which contained artifacts including fragments of wooden coffins. The wall inscriptions and paintings are believed to belong to an era between the reigns of King Amenhotep II and King Thutmose IV, both pharaohs of the 18th dynasty.

IN PHOTOS: Discovery of Two Ancient Tombs Announced in Egypt

The tombs are the latest discovery in Luxor, which is known for its temples and tombs from different dynasties of ancient Egyptian history.

Al-Anani also visited a nearby site where the famous Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut is located. For the first time, the temple’s main sanctuary, known as the Holy of Holies, was opened.

The Antiquities Ministry has made a series of discoveries since the beginning of 2017.

In September, Egyptian archaeologists announced they had found the tomb of a royal goldsmith whose work was dedicated to the ancient Egyptian god Amun. The goldsmith lived more than 3,000 years ago. In the tomb, there were mummies, jewelry and statues.

WATCH: Egypt Announces Discovery of Two Ancient Tombs in Luxor
…

The tombs are the latest discovery in Luxor, which is known for its temples and tombs from different dynasties of ancient Egyptian history.
…

A new exhibition aims to show how the art world has responded to the global changes since the terror attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Age of Terror: Art since 9/11 at London’s Imperial War Museum brings together 40 artists from across the world whose works reflect on conflict and society since that day. Henry Ridgwell reports.
…

Washington’s annual Downtown Holiday Market is open for business. For the last 13 years, this unique seasonal market has provided shopping and entertainment from just after Thanksgving until right before Christmas. VOA’s Eunjung Cho reports.
…

If you want to experience infinity, you’re going to have to wait a long time.

On a recent Saturday, the line to see Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s new Infinity Mirror Rooms stretched all the way around a Manhattan city block, the end of the line even meeting up with the beginning at the entrance to David Zwirner Gallery, and the wait as long as six hours.

Some 5,000 people came through that day, the gallery says, the busiest day yet for the exhibit, and yet more proof — if it were needed — of the massive popularity of Kusama, who’s been described as the top-selling living female artist. Among the 5,000 was not, however, Alla Kondrateva. The 27-year-old New Yorker took one look at the line and gave up, returning on a chilly weekday a few days later when the wait was much shorter. She was happy she returned.

“She’s really quirky,” Kondrateva said of the 88-year-old artist. Her work, she said, “is interactive, and it just draws people in — her style is just out there, eccentric.”

Like many who have passed through the gallery since the exhibit opened at the beginning of November, Kondrateva had seen Kusama’s work on Instagram, where the artist is a presence. Her famous Infinity Mirror Rooms — two new ones are being debuted at the current exhibit, called “Festival of Life” — are perfect for selfies. Hardly anyone leaves without one, or two, or 26. But Kondrateva said she tried to limit the impulse: “I feel like it kind of takes away from the whole experience because you’re not experiencing the art, you’re spending the whole time on your phone.”

And that time isn’t very long. After the lengthy wait outside, visitors get one minute — yes, 60 seconds — in the first Infinity Room, called “Let’s Survive Forever,” a mirror-lined space in which only four to six people can fit amid a slew of shiny mirrored orbs, some hanging from the ceiling, some attached to the floor. In the middle of the room, one peeks into a box that splits images, well, infinitesimally. The room is ideal for selfie-takers; there seems to be no angle from which you cannot see yourself — and your smartphone.

In the second room, “Longing for Eternity,” one peers through round holes into a mirrored box, witnessing a light show with constantly changing colors. The view below appears infinite. It’s hard to take a selfie, but if you have that live-photo function, your photos will go through two color changes as you view them. You get 30 seconds in that room. (One couple got engaged early this week in an Infinity Room, the gallery says; presumably, they got a bit more time.)

After the Infinity Rooms, you’re led — white booties on your feet — into “With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever,” an earlier Kusama work appearing for the first time outside Asia. The entire room is white and covered with Kusama’s signature red polka dots, with huge sculptures of tulips (also white with red dots.)

Colleen Murphy, 23, stood recently in the center of the very photogenic room, taking selfies. She, too, said the wait — just under two hours that morning — was worth it. “It’s really special to see a lot of her work at once, having the context,” said the former art history major who now works in marketing. “Rather than seeing one or two pieces, as you would in a museum.”

In another room hang some 66 of the artist’s brightly colored paintings from her “My Eternal Soul” series, accompanied by a set of new and shiny floral sculptures. One visitor, Mahera Jeevanjee, a physical therapist from San Antonio, Texas, said she found the paintings fascinating as a onetime science major, because some design patterns “look like the anatomy of a cell.”

The Chelsea show closes December 16; a concurrent show of Kusama’s “Infinity Nets” paintings at the gallery’s Upper East Side location runs until December 22.

In a video message accompanying the show, Kusama — in a bright red wig — says that if her art “can inspire a deep love of humanity and acknowledge the amazingness of who we are, I will be very happy.”

“I am determined to continue to grow as an artist who can give hope and power to society,” says the artist, who has a history of neurosis and channels hallucinations into her work. “I want to accomplish work that leads to world peace and the empowerment of our collective future. I will continue to fight this battle and I invite you to fight it with me.”

Have some extra cash? All the works are for sale  even the Infinity Mirror Rooms, though the gallery would not give prices on those, nor say how many editions would be available. As for the paintings, they’re listed for under $1 million.
…

Carrie Fisher may have been the “madcap Auntie Mame” to Mark Hamill’s “square” homebody, but despite their differences, the Star Wars siblings got along famously right till the end.

While both skyrocketed to celebrity with their Star Wars roles in 1977 and remained inextricably linked through their on-screen family, Hamill says he missed a lot of Fisher’s life — during “the Bryan Lourd years” and when her daughter Billie Lourd was an infant. That’s why, even before Fisher’s untimely death last year, he felt especially grateful to just get to spend time with his friend during the filming of Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

“I’d see her periodically during charity events or when there were Star Wars celebrations and so forth. But this was the first time where we could really hang and enjoy each other. Even if I wasn’t shooting, I was coming in for stunt training and this or that, hair tests, coming into her trailer and hanging out with her and [her dog] Gary,” Hamill said. “There was a comfort level we’d developed over all these years. She knew me. She knew I hadn’t really changed. She knew I wasn’t out to get something.”

Fisher was apparently beloved by all in the cast, both for who she was and what the character of Leia meant to them. Her death at age 60 came after filming had finished and deep into post-production, but presented a bit of a conundrum for the filmmakers who had anticipated Leia being part of the next film, too.

Closure comes later

The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson said he ultimately didn’t end up changing anything about her role in this installment, which is the eighth in the Star Wars films about the lives and adventures of the Skywalker clan. That’ll be something J.J. Abrams will have to grapple with in Episode IX, in which Fisher was meant to have a much more prominent role.

“We’ll have to find a way to give her closure in IX, but we’ll never be able to replace her,” Hamill said.

Although no one can talk about exactly what Leia’s arc entails in The Last Jedi, out December 15, Johnson expects it will be an emotional experience.

“She is so good in it,” Johnson said. “I always think about the fans who didn’t know her in real life and grew up watching her, and it’s like they’re all going through their own type of loss. It’s really going to be emotional for people whom she means something to see this. I hope it’ll be good. I hope it’ll mean something to them.”

Many in the cast speak almost interchangeably about the feisty princess-turned-general and the unapologetic boldness of Hollywood royalty who embodied her. The women in particular recall being deeply affected by the Leia character when they were young. 

“I truly remember thinking ‘She’s different. She’s not like all the rest,’ ” Gwendoline Christie said of seeing Leia for the first time when she was 6 or 7 years old. “I’m thinking, ‘I want to be like her.’ ”

But it was Fisher’s extraordinary persona that was atop call cast members’ minds.

“It’s hard to do it justice, describing the life of someone. She’s so complicated,” said Adam Driver, who plays her estranged son. “It is always exciting to see someone who is not interested in conforming to any way of how you should behave. And I think she embodied that with a really great sense of irony.”

Picture of courage

Fisher made newcomer Kelly Marie Tran realize “how much courage it takes to be yourself when you’re on a public platform.”

“She was so unapologetic and openly herself,” Tran said. “She will always be an icon as Leia but also as Carrie. What an example. I am so fortunate to have met her.”

But Fisher’s famed frankness and spirit was only one part of a complex person, according to Hamill, who, after 40 years of knowing her, got to see the nuance. 

“As tough as she was and as venomous as her wit could be, she was really vulnerable in a way. Even though we weren’t really brother and sister, there was sort of a protectiveness I felt. I was defensive when people would criticize her, and I’d get mad at her when she was self-indulgent, which was quite a lot. But I loved her so much,” Hamill said.

“When I get mad and selfish and think, ‘Darn it, Carrie, your timing used to be perfect — why now?,’ you have to say, ‘At least we have that. We should be grateful for the time we had with her.’ And I do know one thing: She would want us to be laughing and happy, not morose and depressed over her not being around anymore.”
…

The U.S. Olympic Committee on Friday said it would send a full team to compete at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in February despite mixed messages this week from the White House about whether the U.S. would participate.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley had said it was an “open question” as to whether the U.S. would travel to South Korea amid weapons tests by its neighbor North Korea, and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters no official decision had been made before clarifying in a tweet that the “U.S. looks forward to participating.”

“I think there was just some miscommunication there, rather than anything intended to be substantive,” USOC CEO Scott Blackmun told reporters following a board meeting in New York.

“We are going to take a team to Pyeongchang unless it’s physically impossible or legally impossible to do that,” he said. “We are 100 percent committed to our athletes on that.”

Blackmun said no Olympic sponsor or athlete had raised concerns about the safety of traveling to South Korea despite growing tensions between the U.S. and North Korea.

“We are going to be bringing a team and showing up like 100 other nations,” he said.
…