A federal judge has dismissed Rose McGowan’s racketeering lawsuit against disgraced former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. The motion by U.S. District Judge Otis Wright was made after the actress missed a court-ordered briefing deadline to file paperwork supporting her case. McGowan has been representing herself in the case since firing her legal team over Zoom on Nov. 23 this year. Missing the deadline has left her “unable to sufficiently plead” her case, Wright said, dismissing her claims “with prejudice,” meaning they cannot be brought again.
McGowan, 48, was one of the first women to publicly come forward with allegations of a 1997 sexual assault by Weinstein. Her suit accused the producer, two of his former lawyers, and the Israeli covert intelligence firm Black Cube Strategies of a conspiracy to threaten her into silence with intimidation tactics. It was filed in 2019 under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. In a statement, a spokesperson for Weinstein celebrated the case’s dismissal. “Out of the public glare, with proper time, legal work, evidence and facts, this is the way we believe they ultimately will all go,” the spokesperson said.
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