The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow · Pineapple Street Studios and Audacy

Episode 3: The Wire

December 10, 2019·38 min·3 clips

While wearing a wire and alone in a hotel hallway, Ambra Gutierrez asked Weinstein directly why he had touched her — and he admitted it.

A Friday in March 2015 starts cold. Ambra Gutierrez is twenty-two, about a month into living in the United States, and standing on a Lower Manhattan corner when she calls her agent to say Harvey Weinstein assaulted her. Her first account is blunt. She says Weinstein groped her and put his hand up her skirt during a meeting at his office. Then the machinery kicks in. After the sting, detectives take her out of the building and reassure her. They tell her she was great and helped stop the monster. Weinstein is questioned that afternoon. He voluntarily follows detectives to an NYPD precinct, asks for a lawyer, and is released that night. Then the case moves to prosecutors. Cyrus Vance Jr.'s office has Ambra, the recording, and the decision in front of it. Ambra expects questions about Weinstein. Instead, Martha Bashford, head of the sex crimes unit, asks about Italy, gifts, Berlusconi, and Ambra's sexual history. The turn is jarring. Two law enforcement sources tell the reporter the questioning looked hostile; one says Bashford sounded like one of Weinstein's personal defense attorneys. The DA's office says the interview was typical preparation for what a trial could do to a witness. Ambra hears something colder. To her, the focus has shifted from the alleged assault to whether her past can be used against her. The episode stays close to that pressure, then lets in small bits of Ambra's life: English, cartoons, karaoke, Adele.

As heard by us

A tense account of how a complaint can be turned back on the person who made it.

This is a tense account of Ambra Gutierrez's complaint against Harvey Weinstein, opening on a cold Friday in March 2015 in Lower Manhattan and moving through the phone call to her agent, the trip to the police, and the sting that brought detectives to Weinstein.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the Weinstein story where the case turns on Ambra Gutierrez.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow