Leon Wieseltier, a longtime former editor at the New Republic who was working on launching a new magazine, apologized Tuesday after being accused of workplace sexual harassment and inappropriate advances toward female colleagues, The New York Times reported.
Several former New Republic colleagues claimed that Wieseltier kissed them on the mouth in front of other staff members, asked for details about their sex lives, forced them to look at photos of a nude sculpture and often commented on what women wore to work, telling them their dresses weren’t tight enough, according to an anonymous source who spoke with the Times. The person had seen a chain of emails between women at The New Republic who shared personal accounts of Wieseltier’s inappropriate behavior.
“For my offenses against some of my colleagues in the past I offer a shaken apology and ask for their forgiveness,” he wrote in an emailed statement to the Times. “The women with whom I worked are smart and good people. I am ashamed to know that I made any of them feel demeaned and disrespected. I assure them I will not waste this reckoning.”
The for-profit group that was financing his new magazine, Emerson Collective, pulled out of the deal after the allegations began to surface, according to the Times.
“Upon receiving information related to past inappropriate workplace conduct, Emerson Collective ended its business relationship with Leon Wieseltier, including a journal planned for publication under his editorial direction,” they said in a statement Tuesday. “The production and distribution of the journal has been suspended.”
The allegations came to light after Wieseltier was accused of workplace harassment on an anonymous list that was circulating around media groups. The list began spreading among female members of the media shortly after allegations of decades-worth of sexual harassment and sexual assault by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein were widely reported earlier this month.
