This synagogue and Culture Center is now 15 years old, and its founders and staff rerealy deserve a lot of credit. [applause] they deserve a lot of credit for transforming this place into the vibrant Community Institution it is today. Were delighted be hosting jody kantor and megan twohey. They are of course the to two New York Times reporter who reveals to the world Harvey Weinsteins extensive sexual abuse. Their book she said is the rifting revealing account how they developed theyre blockbuster story, and its consequences in spurring the metoo movement. As they note in their preface, in the wake of the weinstein expo expo say which broke in act 2017, it was as if a dam wall had come down, many, many women not just in country but around the world, spilled forward to tell their own stovers mistreatment. In addition to the pivotal impact the jodie and megan roz recording that the way they went about confirm the story, that others before them had tried to nail, provides a terrific case study of what goes into first raitt investigative journalism. People often say such scoops just fall into the laps of report erred inch realities what is involved is a lot of painstaking reporting. Pursuing leads, running into dead ends, coaxing details out of reluck tan sources, fanning out documents, substantiating information, dealing with skeptical, inpatient ed doctors all while enduring often intense itself bid the subject of the investigation to thwart to and sometime thursday threaten. The example bets hi eddie and megan of tough and exacting journal jim the effect this kind of reporting can have stands as a powerful counterargument to the sent skim but and denegation of news media today. Both jodi and megan 2008 their task rears of experience, jodi who joined the times a years ago spent a while as a political report and wrote a book about bar rock and Michelle Obama came out in 2012 and her reporting he focuses on the workplace, particularly the treatment of women, megan concentrated on the treatment of women and children in 2014 as a rueter with reuters she was a final u. S. At the fuel litter for investigative reporting for disposing an underground network where parents gave away adopted children, they no longer wanted to strangers met on the some internet. Their work on the weinstein story led to the New York Times along with the new yorker, winning the pulitzer for Public Service last year. [applause] in a review in New York Times, remarked that the book reads a bit like a feminist all the president s men. So, its particularly fitting that jody and megan will be in conversation with bob woodward. [applause] bob has been observing and regarding on major developments in washington for nearly half a century. He has shared in two pew pulitzers prize nor to coverage over the watergate seasonal and second in two were to lead reporter of the coverage of the 9 11 attacks but fears his devastating look inside the Trump Presidency came out last year, it was his 19th book, all have been National Best sellers. I wouldnt bet against another one coming out in a not too distant future. Please join me in welcoming jody kantor, megan twohey and bob woodward. [cheers and applause] thank you, brad. Its great to be here. Lets get right to it. First of all, this book is a masterpiece. A landmark. [applause] of journalism and but people who were not journalists should read it because its about how you sort out information, test it, decide to publish and share it with others i loved it. Have my marked up coach copy here. What was the origin of the collaboration between you two . Well, we would actually just like to start by thanking everybody. This is the launch of our book tour so we are just so [cheers and applause] were so thrilled to be here tonight, starting right here, and were also grateful we have not only friends and family and also some sours the audience tonight so we want to thank them foring here, too. [cheers and applause] okay. Introduce your family if theyre here. Will they stand up . I think that we i think when it comes to the question and answer period there may be people who want to get up identy themselves. So, i thats a good question. The truth is that in 2017 the New York Times sort of more broadly the newsroom decided it wanted to dive into reporting on Sexual Harassment. So the weinstein story, was one of actually many reporting projects that started that year, and it sill son real and the Restaurant Industry and the comedy industry, in auto plants in chicago, and we were really moved by the work of our colleagues, emily and mike had done something remarkable in e early that year, broken the bill olylely story and show out oryely and fox paid out millions of dollars to silence women who had come forward with alwayses of Sexual Misconduct against him. Lets pretend its the movie is it in nuss room of the New York Times issue did you know each other we had been acquaintances. Megan was very new at the paper and i saw this woman like in 2016, who i could tell was pretty for methoddable because she was doing difficult trump stories and also i saw her belly going like this. Like as the stories got more difficult, like this is what was happening to her body. And i have had two did kidds and i notice was not a easy but diabout know each other well. Only meat couple of times, and megan was on Maternity Leave in the spring of 2017, when i started working on the weinstein story. Was part of the answer to this question that the editors asked, there are other american powerful men in American Life who have perhaps abused women and covered it up . And i was trying very hard to get people on the phone and engage them. I mean, getting these actresses phone numbers was like an investigation unto itself. And then theres the question of once you have them on the phone, what do you actually do to earn trust . Sometimes just in that first 45 seconds as you know, until i called megan for advice, and she was like, in full on Maternity Leave. Just put the baby down for a nap. But she was telling me about reporting she had done on allegations by women against donald trump, and she was saying that the argue. S she often made to them was, look, i cant change what happened to you in the past, but together if we work, if he work arm in arm with may be able to take your pain and put it to some constructive purpose. This was the standard line you used. Right. The outreach line. Right. Thats right. So this is our first the first real conversation that jodi and i had while i was on Maternity Leave simple had didnt reporting on sex crimes. Started my career first in wisconsin and then in chicago it and was something id found had actually that this was what reason does a woman have to open up about the when did you become a team or when did you know you were a team or even more importantly, when did th editors think of youve as a team. When my editor told me to call megan i didnt think much of it. But now i realize that she sort of works in deep ways and understands the newsroom and i understand that she was like feeling out a potential partnership. So you were kind of tricked into it. Well, for me when lit megan said that line on the phone, something in me changed, and i i did not want to get off the phone with her and i of course wanted husband of the have same effect on sources but megan had another couple of weeks for maternity loo lead and had choices what some would cover when she came back. Go back to covering trump or join jodi on the weinstein investigation and i had to take a day to think about it. There were i had been covering trump up until having this baby and i watched for four months as i saw kind of hardhitting investigative work land with a thud and not have an impact and this is a real question is whether or not as investigative journalists youre not just out to write interesting stories. You want to write story that have an impact. Why weinstein . A lot of people hadnt heard of it. I myself had. Not now. You made him famous. I barely knew who he was and i will confess i had doubts. I wondered, this is when jodi told me but to the alwayses she heard, the stories of ashley judd and Gwyneth Paltrow ahead a hard tom conceive he famous actresses as victims and comprehend as investigate jiff journalists looking to give voice to voiceless and i had a hard time wrapping my head around hollywood but jody said the fact this hays happened to these women allegedly is suggests that nobody is immune and if we can crack this story, we really might be able to help make a difference here. Okay. When was the first real breakthrough . Where in your book, youve got the chronology and you have so many characters and so forth. When is the moment where you were, ah, this is different . This is something that has legs, as we say in the news business. We had a breakthrough, that left news a bad position because three really prominent actresses, rose mcgowan, ashley judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, not communication with one another, barely knew each other totally separately, tell us these terrible weinstein hotel room stories. At this point they were not on the record. They were so far from on the record. So that thats what far off the record. Thats what left news a bad position because it immediately created this bind because on the one hand, theres wow, these are high value sources, and theyre stories are very convincing and their stories match but on the other hand, none of them are ready to go on the record. So what do we do . What did you do. We basically realized is that the story was going to have to be broken with edit ifs ifives d we had this theory maybe we can persuade actresses to jump together and theres sift in numbers but because we couldnt tell any of the actresses who else we were talk, to it was very hard to get them to do that. And then also if we did that, it may have still created a traditional he said she said dynamic where the story just would have sparked a debate about what weinstein had or hadnt done. What brought you into making this different or making it provable. We realized we would need records and evidence that quenton the accounts were hearing. And so what this is one of the ways in which we always turn to emily and mike who had broken the bill oreilly story. They had done something remarkable there. This was they basically helped teach us how to basically try to track down these secret settlements that have been paid. The key her is a settlement or some sort of agreement to be silent, an nda. Right. There will women who were reluctant to tell us their experiences with weinstein. There were also women, at least eight, who were legally prohibited from telling us what had happened because weinstein had forced secret settlements on them. This happens not just degree case of weinstein but cases of sexual harassingment and Sexual Assault across the country. Women are told their best option in these cases is to basically accept money in exchange for silence, but the what do you what do you think of senate it seems your big breakthrough is rose mcgowan where she had 100,000 settlement. That was concrete. Weinstein0 the company had paid her, right . So we were able to basically able in the course of our reporting to show that we were able to trace the financial trail of payoffs that hat made. That he secret settlements been used to high the truth to allow people like weinstein to cover his tracks, we realize it if we could unearth the fact the settlements had been paid over the years, that would be evidence into itself and we were actually able to track down settlements from 1990 to 2015 and there were a view variety of way we were able to document. Rose mcgowan is one of many. Month the wonderful lines in book you say, knowing about documents is good. Having seen documents is excellent. But actually having copies is a celebration. Right. You know what that feels like. Now when was the first time you actually got or saw documents that showed women had been paid off to be quiet . I sought it guy to london, that summer to meet with zelda per kips a former miramax assistants who had a settlement, and megan is like basically eemoji techings me to the plain. She said youre going to see the paper. Go get em. She is the coach. Well, we even in the scenes in the book where its really one of us sort of doing something, were both really to there because were preparing before hand, were strategizing, et cetera, and so when i laid eyes on the papers the clauses were so shocking, bob. They went beyond a kind of standard settle immigrant agreement. These very young women were settlement agreement. They legally overpoured and they were essentially prohibited from talking about their open life experiences. If day wanted to tell a therapist, they needed to special permission. If they wanted to talk to an accountant they needed special permission. They could one of the women could not tell her future husband about what had happened to her. The women were not even allowed to retain copies of these settlement away a papers. Zelda perkinses put some together but imagine being told you have to abide by an agreement that you cannot even have your own copy of. How do you break that . Well, sell da was very brave. Because she basically she was from the beginning she was thinking of just breaking her settlement which was courageous because it would have exposed her to potential legal and financial liability, but i felt that i couldnt push her into that because it was such a big risk, and remember that we act now like metoo was inevitable but waits was for for foreordained with thought we might be publishing a controversial story and our sours might by vulnerable to a lot of attack. So we basically said is, look, zelda, even. I you cant go on the record there are so many other people who know about this settlement. Other people at miramax who know you disarched,out got money, there are lawyers, there are lots of people we can talk to. What if we just write about this document everything we can that happened, and you dont go on the record, and thats what she agreed to. And did you ever use the argument, if youre silent, youre enabling this . I think that the truth is that for women who have experienced sexual harassingment and Sexual Assault, theyve already undergone so much pain in their lives that were not trying to show we dont want to bully anybody into doing what to sort of come forward. Thats not aing extra we dont think thats an effective strategy and dont think thats just the right thing to do. Er did nothing to be asking them to break something in which legally bindingng document in which weinstein could come after them for the serious money. But not now. Did you think are liberated from that. I think weinstein is preparing to go on trial for criminal charges so hes got much anything attention to other issues right now. He is busy. He seems to now. But they are seeking financial compensation. Ifut any of you would be mistakn to think that this its not a serious risk. You say that maybe women who have targets against weinstein. How many of those are public now and how many of them are off the record t or for the next volume. I believe the public count, there are the other women including file write about in this book will not come forward. Reallyab keeping to remember especially as a style comes up, is the accusations really vary. Some of them, are activations of rape and assault the fall within the purview of the criminal Justice System or should. But a lot of them are charges Sexual Harassment and thats illegal but its a civil violation. This sort of resolute restitution for that, you can sue for that but you cant be arrested. So thats part of why the question of both of weinstein will essentially face any accountability at all, is the fraud. Criminal trials be . And the sort off combined civil lawsuit is also still a big question. Bob you two are experts in interviewing and going down really explaining people his experience. In all of you know, did you find any women who actually made up allegations. In the course of our reporting on rising, we have not doublecrossed any fabricated allegations. What i can tell you, its very important. Bob the tweet said donald trump. [applause] as you know, our book actually starts on the reporting of allegations against trump. We havent come across fabricated allegations but we also cometi across in cases whee we didnt report allegations not because we didnt believe the person buthe because we havent been able to obtain collaboration. There was one woman, a former beauty pageant contestant, who told me a story about being sexually harassed and groped by donald trump when she was in the ms. Miss universet pageant. She provided some and steer me towards some potential collaboration but didnt materialize. It wasnt that i didnt blame her but it just meant that it wasnt, we really go to painstaking details to describe all of the Due Diligence that we do to move forward with publishing a story likeis this. Bob turnabout Rebecca Corbett who was your roll up the sleeves editor. This marvelous scene in the book where she takes you to a part of why its bar. As you describedak it. Tell us what she said to you. This was in the summer of 2017, we been reporting forl weeks and weeks and we know so many things. We have spoken to several actresses who are very convincing accounts, loosened collaboration of accounts, we know about all bunch of settlements at that. We have also talked to miramax employees who have said yes this is the terrible problem. I had some knowledge of it at the time. Bob so you are really going to the bar. Were feeling nervous and this terrible feeling. Bob tell us what she had to say. We have this feeling of responsibility and we want to know if we can lend the story. She listens to everything that we have. And she says, is any of it on the record. And we saide no. And she said, you do not have a publishable story. We felt pretty devastated purity it was definitely one of the more memorable moments in one of the ones we work so hard on. There was a lot of drama in the pages of the articles online scene they came out but theres also so much drama that played out behind the scenes. As we were grateful to finally be able to show readers what its like when youim are not jut with working with sources but also