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Crystal McKinney, one of the women who recently accused Sean "Diddy" Combs of sexual assault, has now filed a separate lawsuit against disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein. The suit, lodged Friday in Manhattan Federal Court, outlines a 2003 incident in which McKinney claims she and a friend were raped by Weinstein at a New York hotel.
According to court documents obtained by People, McKinney alleges that Weinstein, under the guise of discussing film industry opportunities, invited her to the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park Hotel after an initial meeting at a nightclub. Once there, she claims he provided alcohol, groped her, and later coerced both women into sexual acts before allegedly raping them.
The incident, as described in the complaint, occurred while Weinstein was a dominant force in Hollywood. McKinney said he "piled drinks" on them, then followed them into a restroom, where he exposed himself. The lawsuit claims Weinstein forced her and her friend to perform sexual acts on each other before he assaulted them.
Weinstein's attorney, Imran H. Ansari, swiftly denied the accusations. "Harvey Weinstein categorically denies the outlandish and fantastical claims made against him by Crystal McKinney," he said in a statement to Page Six. "Made late in time and suspiciously on the heels of her complaint against Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Mr. Weinstein is ready to refute and defend against the salacious claims, that are believed to have been made with an opportunistic motive."
The timing of McKinney's lawsuit has raised questions, as it follows her recent filing against Combs, in which she accuses the music mogul of drugging and raping her during the early 2000s. That case remains active, with Combs pleading not guilty to sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Weinstein, meanwhile, is already serving time at Rikers Island for his 2022 California sex crime convictions. Though he was originally sentenced to 23 years in New York in 2020, the state's Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in April 2024, citing the improper inclusion of testimony from women unrelated to the charges.
The retrial process is pending, with Weinstein's legal team petitioning to expedite the date due to his declining health. "I don't know how much longer I can hold on," he told the court in January.
As the legal system reevaluates the integrity of earlier proceedings, McKinney's new lawsuit adds another layer to the ongoing reckoning in both Hollywood and the music industry—underscoring how legacies built on power are now facing a different kind of scrutiny.
