BREAKING: Harvey Weinstein Facing Arrest in NYC, Expected to Surrender Friday

Los Angeles street artist Plastic Jesus sits on his art installation showing a bathrobe-clad Harvey Weinstein seated atop a couch and clutching an Oscar statue on the sidewalk along Hollywood Blvd., in Los Angeles, Thursday, March 1, 2018. The piece, titled "Casting Couch," is a collaborative effort between Plastic Jesus and Joshua "Ginger" Monroe, creator of the nude Donald Trump statue. Plastic Jesus said the piece was meant to shine a light on the entertainment industry's sexual misconduct crisis and the disgraced movie mogul's prominent role in it. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Maybe, just maybe, Harvey Weinstein is finally having to face the music after decades of assaulting women.

Sure, he already is ruined professionally. That’s the same type of suffering he visited upon the women who resisted his “advances.” He hasn’t had to feel the terror that grips someone who is physically helpless or whose freedom is restricted. Yet.

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As a result of an ongoing investigation by the Manhattan DA’s office and the NYPD, Weinstein is facing charges of sexual misconduct arising from an incident in 2004 where he allegedly forced Lucia Evans to perform oral sex on him. Sources told both the New York Daily News and the New York Times that Weinstein will be arrested Friday, and will turn himself in.

According to the Daily News, a special grand jury was convened “weeks ago” and has also been presented with evidence of financial fraud, but it’s unclear whether Weinstein will be charged with any financial crimes at this time.

On Wednesday the Wall Street Journal and New York Times reported that Weinstein could also be facing federal charges relating to financial misconduct and… stalking.

The federal investigation started late last year when prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan began to examine whether Mr. Weinstein had committed fraud when he arranged for two auction items — a sitting with a famous fashion photographer and a package of tickets to a Hollywood awards event and party — to be offered together at an AIDS charity fund-raiser in France in May 2015. There was one condition to the deal, said people with knowledge of the matter: $600,000 of the proceeds had to go to a theater staging a Broadway musical that Mr. Weinstein was producing.

According to the people familiar with the case, that investigation, which is being handled by the Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit of the Manhattan federal prosecutors’ office, quickly expanded to include the possibility that Mr. Weinstein broke federal stalking laws in his dealings with women who have accused him of sexual assault. Those laws forbid crossing state lines to kill, injure, harass or intimidate victims.

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Weinstein’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, confirmed to the Times that he met with federal prosecutors regarding their inquiry in “an attempt to dissuade them from proceeding.” He maintains that Weinstein never participated in nonconsensual sexual conduct. Brafman has not yet commented publicly on Weinstein’s planned surrender to the NYPD.

Local authorities in Los Angeles and London are also investigating potential criminal charges against Weinstein for alleged sexual assaults committed in those jurisdictions.

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