De Niro accuser fires back after actor dismisses bombshell audio
A lawyer for the former assistant accusing Robert De Niro of harassment and gender discrimination isn't backing down after the actor's camp called the lawsuit "beyond absurd."
“Listen to the voicemail,” Alexandra Harwin, an attorney for Graham Chase Robinson, said during a Friday sit-down interview with FOX Business. “It's very clear from the voicemail that Mr. De Niro left her, that what was going on here was abusive and demeaning.”
During her roughly 11 years working for De Niro’s production company, Canal Productions, Robinson's lawyer said her client was discriminated against “day in and day out.”
Graham Chase Robinson (Sanford Heisler Sharp)
“Ms. Robinson was asked to do things that her male colleagues were never asked to do, like scratch Mr. De Niro's back, button his buttons, tie his ties,” she added. “The whole work environment was unacceptable.”
Robinson was 25 years old when she started with the company in 2008 and worked with De Niro until April 2019. During her tenure, she rose through the ranks from executive assistant to director of productions and vice president of production and finance.
LISTEN TO BOMBSHELL AUDIO IN DE NIRO HARASSMENT CASE:
Robinson said the 76-year-old Hollywood star treated her like his “office wife,” the federal lawsuit states, and often went ballistic on her, once calling her a “spoiled brat” in a profanity-laced voicemail when she did not answer his phone call.
"Among these duties, De Niro directed Ms. Robinson to put away his boxers, hang up his clothes, wash his sheets, vacuum his apartment, set his table, mend his clothing, and select gifts for his children."
De Niro's attorney, Tom Harvey, dismissed the claims. “The allegations made by Graham Chase Robinson against Robert De Niro are beyond absurd," Harvey said in a statement on Friday.
The accuser's attorney maintains the maniacal tirade by De Niro was “not an isolated incident” either. “It was one example among many of the kinds of conduct that Mr. De Niro subjected Ms. Robinson to,” she said.
"Once when she did not pick up his phone call, DeNiro left Ms. Robinson a voicemail filled with expletives in which he called her a 'spoiled brat' ... said 'how dare you f-cking disrespect me,' and threatened her, saying 'you’re f-cking history.'"
Harwin told FOX Business De Niro’s treatment of Robinson began during her first year of employment. "The work environment grew much worse over time and eventually became so intolerable that she had no choice but to quit," Harwin said.
The suit claims Robinson complained repeatedly and, on multiple occasions, told De Niro she wanted to resign.
Robinson's team said once De Niro learned his former employee was taking legal action, the multi-millionaire struck first and filed a $6 million lawsuit of his own in August 2019 under his company name, Canal Productions.
Canal Productions accused Robinson of stealing hundreds of thousands of company dollars before suddenly resigning. The suit also alleges Robinson lied to get paid for 96 unused vacation days and in one instance, watched 55 episodes of "Friends" on Netflix during work hours.
“It was a routine occurrence for Mr. De Niro, when intoxicated, to call Ms. Robinson -- to call her names, to berate her, to curse at her.”
"At the end of the day, it was Mr. De Niro who put Ms. Robinson in the public eye. He filed a retaliatory lawsuit that was covered across every media and trampled Ms. Robinson's reputation to not only people in the entertainment industry but also to people across the country in every walk of life."
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Robinson is seeking $12 million in damages, double what De Niro is seeking.