Off The Cuff Declassified - John Cardillo - May 25⧸2018
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
159.48117
Summary
Harvey Weinstein surrenders to the NYPD. A poll says the majority of Americans agree with President Trump on MS-13. NFL players are becoming more insufferable, and is Amazon buying on us at home? Harvey Weinstein and most likely soon-to-be convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein turned himself in at the New York City Police Department s first precinct at about 7:30 a.m. Eastern this morning.
Transcript
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Today on Off the Cup Declassified, Harvey Weinstein surrenders to the NYPD.
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A poll says the majority of Americans agree with President Trump on MS-13.
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NFL players are becoming more insufferable and is Amazon buying on us at home?
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Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and most likely soon-to-be convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein
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turned himself in at the New York City Police Department's first precinct at about 7.30
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Weinstein is turning himself in for charges stemming from the complaint of a woman named
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Lucia Evans about incidents that happened going back as far as 2004.
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Now, luckily, New York State has a long statute of limitations on these types of sex crimes
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Weinstein apparently forced her to perform oral sex on him.
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We give credit where due, Ronan Farrow broke that story and did an outstanding job profiling
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Weinstein's decades, decades of brutal sexual assaults on women.
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We just saw Bill Cosby convicted, convicted of rape.
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His sentencing is happening sometime in September and now new allegations against Morgan Freeman.
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The Weinstein case, however, raises really, really troubling questions.
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Weinstein was investigated more than a few times by various law enforcement agencies,
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those out in L.A. and Hollywood, ones in Europe, in the U.K., actually the same as Kevin Spacey,
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But the NYPD Special Victims Unit had a very solid case on Weinstein, yet Manhattan District
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Well, it turns out that Cy Vance received money for his campaign, he's a Democrat,
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from Weinstein's lawyer, from many associates of Weinstein.
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New York City and New York State Democratic parties benefit, they benefit greatly from guys like Harvey Weinstein
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and associates of Harvey Weinstein, people in the movie industry, dependent on Harvey Weinstein
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to stay very rich, people that Harvey Weinstein made very wealthy.
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But I do have a problem when money creeps into the criminal justice system.
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But the stark reality of the world is that money does.
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There is, you know, you're never going to change that.
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People can scream and yell about campaign finance reform.
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Guys like John McCain, who have taken a gazillion dollars from the defense industry.
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I always find it beautifully hypocritical when a John McCain cries about campaign finance reform
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because he is one of the worst culprits in D.C.
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It is very, very troubling when money creeps into criminal justice.
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I've, I obviously, you watch the show, you know I interface with law enforcement around
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the country and I dabble in helping candidates with their messaging.
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And I've helped quite a few candidates for sheriff.
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They're small races, but it's a passion of mine.
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I love law enforcement and it's very important to me to get the right people elected.
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And the last few people I worked with would only take money from either family.
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They and their dad put all the money into the race.
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Or from large donors, individual donors who are very wealthy, but who they know socially.
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And so there was a sheriff in a much larger county I knew.
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And his key donor base were some very high net worth individuals, all retired or had sold
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And they really had no need for a local sheriff.
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And in some cases they were billionaire net worth.
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They had sold off large auto dealerships and financial firms and they were squeaky clean.
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These were not people that were going to get in trouble.
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It wasn't even going to be about a DUI because they all had drivers and things of that nature.
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And so these were people who donated because really what they wanted was just to be able
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to get a little car that's a special deputy or something like that, or be able to once
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in a while go out and use the sheriff's department's gun range, which most sheriff's departments
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here in Florida will open them to the public to use every now and again.
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So it was a really ethical way for large money donors, rather, I'm stumbling over my words,
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for large money, high money donors who have involvement with law enforcement.
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Many of these people also set up nonprofits like 501c3s that can legally, it's the way you
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can absolutely legally do it, it's encouraged, they would donate large amounts of money.
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And those 501c3s in turn would donate things to the sheriff's departments, new vehicles,
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bulletproof vests, better firearms, training seminars, things of that nature.
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These weren't, you know, mid-level business people, small business owners that were running
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kind of shady businesses, and they needed the local sheriff on the take.
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And so in that instance, I said, okay, you know, this is also really clean, and I'll work
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But when you have a series of donors in a particular industry, entertainment, that has for decades
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upon decades, look, I bartended and waited tables in college in New York City, and if
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you know anything about the bartending and restaurant scene, bar and restaurant scene in
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New York City, the staff, the joke is, you know, oh, you're bartending here, what audition
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And it was just, everybody's an actor, everybody's a model, everybody's a singer, everybody's
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I was a guy just waiting to go into the New York City to graduate college and go into
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You know, I was like, I was the 1% of the 1% in that world.
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I mean, these are good-looking guys and girls that work there, and a lot of the girls would
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just tell me, you know, man, well, that guy was such a creep.
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Some of the girls were like, yeah, what are you going to do?
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And the guys that I worked with, it wasn't just the homosexual advances from those in
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The women, the women, the casting directors, the producers, the directors would be all over
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It's really an immoral business in many respects.
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And so this has been going on since the beginning of the entertainment industry, sexual predation.
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That's not from crazy conspiracy theories like Pizzagate.
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It's from my time working on those cases, working alongside the National Center for Missing
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and Exploited Children, consulting on shows in Hollywood, seeing how this all works.
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Now, I told you the story about Kevin Spacey that I'll tell you again in a moment, but back
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And so these donations that went to Cyrus Vance had, via the New York State Democratic
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Party, the New York City Democratic Party, or direct contributions to Manhattan DA, Cyrus
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Vance's campaign accounts, seem to have had an impact on his office's decision to have
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I will never, we will never be able to prove that.
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That's my opinion, but the reason it's my opinion is that the New York City Police Department
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Special Victims Unit is probably the best in the world at what they do.
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I would argue they're better than the FBI because of the amount of cases they handle.
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New York City's population is so big and rapes, sexual assaults tend to be local and state
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They simply handle many, many more of these cases than does the FBI.
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And they have more experience, the more you handle, the more experienced you are, the
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more often you testify in court, the more attuned you become, the more experienced you
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You're required to conduct and attend more in-service trainings where you're learning about
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the latest advances in DNA technology, in psychology of victims, psychology of offenders.
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And so the New York City Police Department Special Victims Unit is far and away the best in
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So they're nipping at their heels, they might be equal, I'm partial to the NYPD for obvious
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I spoke to some detectives in that unit that I know, two of whom I worked with on the street,
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And they all tell me much the same that I was told by very close friends in the LADA's office
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We know this guy is guilty, but the victims are either paid off or terrified, and the
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damn prosecutors won't try to make these cases.
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You know, the prosecutors don't want to prosecute.
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And so what it leaves you with, what it leaves you with are traumatized victims and really
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frustrated cops, really, really frustrated investigators.
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And so that was the way this Weinstein investigation was going until Ronan Farrow's expose blew the
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lid off of it, completely blew the lid off of it.
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And Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan DA's office, could no longer, they could no longer help push
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Now you had special victims units detectives whose credibility, I can't remember one case.
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Now I bring you stories of police misconduct when it's warranted, but I mean when I say
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this, I look back, I called friends, and just from my own anecdotal recollections, I can't
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remember one instance where a New York City special victims unit detective was discredited on
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the stand or their evidence didn't hold up because they meet these victims.
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And I worked those cases, not with SVU, but with child pornography and pedophilia and
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And when you meet the victims, all you want to do is do it right.
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You want to cross every T, you want to dot every I.
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You want to make sure that you don't miss a thing because you want justice for them.
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You can't go out and kill the bad guy, which many cops would want to do.
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But you want to have them sitting in a cell for the rest of their lives.
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If they murdered, hopefully you'll get them the death penalty.
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But you want to leave every stone flipped over several times.
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You want to dig three, four, five feet deeper into every hole.
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Then go an extra 15 miles because you really want these bad guys in jail.
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And that's exactly what SVU did over the years on Harvey Weinstein.
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The district attorney's office wouldn't prosecute the cases.
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Because the New York City district attorney's office is a political entity.
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And typically, politicians, whether they be president of the United States, senators, congresspeople,
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down the local school board, and often elected sheriffs, elected prosecutors, district attorneys,
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state attorneys, attorneys general, they don't like political or financial hot potatoes.
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So they tend to blow them off until spotlight is on them.
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And when that spotlight is on them, well, they can no longer blow those cases off.
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And that's exactly what Farrah's expose did to Cy Vance's office.
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Now, the prosecutor that's on the case is a female prosecutor.
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And we'll put her name out there because I don't want it like naming prosecutors for security reasons,
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But let it suffice to say, she's been in the office for a few decades.
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I have a couple of friends that had major cases with her.
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They said she is one of the best they've ever worked with.
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And one of my friends who is, you've seen him on the show, actually, Rob O'Donnell.
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He was an incredibly talented homicide detective in the NYPD, now retired.
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And now he does law enforcement analysis on this show and others.
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And Rob and I were talking about this particular prosecutor.
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And he basically said Weinstein is effed because she's that thorough, that good at what she does.
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And when you combine now, the Special Victims Unit detectives have a particular vendetta against Weinstein
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You have this incredibly talented, successful, high conviction rate prosecutor and a monster spotlight
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Now, I have to agree with my buddy Rob, I think Weinstein is, well, effed.
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That all being said, the problem still exists in Hollywood.
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Weinstein is just one, you know, symptom of the total disease.
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One symptom that's presenting, that's been discovered, and that's now being excised of the total disease.
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Now, Kevin Spacey is under investigation by multiple agents, Los Angeles and the UK right now.
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And I've told you the story before, but back in 2009, when I was doing this work,
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I was also consulting a consulting producer on an NBC show that eventually did get launched.
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I didn't make anywhere near the money I thought I would.
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So, yes, I cut myself a bad deal, but no, it took many, many years,
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and I only had a deal for a certain amount of episodes, but it was fun.
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But one of the producers on it, one of the executive producers and I,
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were talking about these types of crimes, and we were strategizing.
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We were sitting at the Ritz-Carlton, Marina Del Rey, myself,
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and these two very, very well-known executive producers.
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I won't put their names out there, but they're good guys.
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They didn't get involved in the Hollywood scene and all those trappings.
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And they really, quite frankly, thought those people were, like, nuts.
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These guys were very atypical for Hollywood power players.
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They were, like, coaching their kids' baseball games and going on family vacations
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And somehow, Kevin Spacey's name came up in another movie,
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and one of them said, I don't know how that guy's not rotting in prison
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I said, you know, he always seemed a little creepy.
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They said, you know, same reason Michael Jackson isn't.
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The payoffs and the intimidation and families who are more absorbed
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in making their kids famous than they are in a scandal in Hollywood
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So I gave a call to a friend of mine who was a prosecutor
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And he said, believe me, because I couldn't sit there
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I think a friend of mine was another consulting producer on his projects.
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And he worked with child sex victims and putting away pedophiles.
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And I called him up and I said, hey, I got this heads up on this actor.
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And he says, oh, God, because I can't tell you how much information
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we have on that guy, but that it's your typical Hollywood case.
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The victims are intimidated or they're afraid or they're, you know,
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we don't know, but we feel money was exchanged and quiet settlements.
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And he's now under criminal investigation in both Los Angeles
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and in the U.K. for many incidents of both sexual predation
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on adults and underage minors, as it should be, as it should be.
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Now, again, all of the things I was told back in 2009 were opinion and hearsay.
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is a child sexual predator and a sexual predator?
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No, the evidence hasn't been presented in court.
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But am I comfortable saying that if I were still active in law enforcement
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based on the sources, based on their credibility,
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is an investigation warranted as is happening in Los Angeles and the U.K.?
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Now, because of the spotlight shown on all these people,
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Look, Hollywood is not all of a sudden going to become moral.
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hey, I'm going to be publicly shamed and spend a long time in jail,
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I'm going to tell you something that's going to shock you.
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Now, despite Nancy Pelosi defending the divinity and dignity of MS-13 gang members,
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that a majority of Americans agree with President Trump,
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quote, does he not believe in the spark of divinity,
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And God, I hope the Democrats go down this path in November in 2020.
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President Trump, of course, said these people aren't,
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And he said that, you remember we profiled this,
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to Fresno, California County Sheriff Margaret Mims,
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understood the president's comments in context.
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Well, new poll shows that a majority of Americans
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think it's fair to characterize MS-13 gangbangers
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found 56% of adults think the word was acceptable,
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54% and 52% would like to see MS-13 dehumanized.
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they're out of touch with their own party's base