Robert De Niro Discrimination Trial Selects Jury; Actor to testify after opening statement

Opening arguments begin this afternoon in a federal courtroom in Manhattan in a civil employment case between actor Robert De Niro and his former assistant Graham Chase Robinson. De Niro himself is scheduled to testify today under direct examination by one of Robinson’s attorneys.

An eight-member jury was selected Monday to hear the case, which Judge Lewis J. Liman said will last two weeks. Jurors must decide claims in dueling lawsuits filed in 2019: whether the Flower Moon Killer The star subjected Robinson to gender-based harassment and underpaid her in violation of New York law, and whether Robinson, who quit her job in 2019, misappropriated money while working at De Niro’s company Canal and took valuables when she is gone

Lawyers for both sides spent part of the morning objecting to portions of the other side’s planned opening statements and debating whether testimony, including emails and voice recordings, should be allowed.

The two-time Oscar-winning actor was not in the courtroom for the pre-lunch hearing, but will be the first witness called to the stand, according to Robinson’s lawyers. Sitting among members of her five-person legal team, Robinson watched quietly and listened as attorneys argued and Liman interviewed potential jurors.

Today’s hearing includes both De Niro’s first lawsuit and Robinson’s countersuit.

They blame each other for the strained working relationship that ended with Robinson’s resignation in the spring. Their legal complaints offer starkly different views of what happened between the Oscar winners Angry bull And The godfather and the woman who was on the payroll of De Niro’s company Canal Productions for 11 years.

De Niro initially sued, alleging that Robinson embezzled $6 million in company funds, used a company card for personal expenses, watched hours of Netflix at De Niro’s Manhattan mansion while she worked, and stole millions of frequent flyer miles when she left the company. By.

Robinson said in her original filing that an “enraged” De Niro knew he would soon face claims of gender discrimination, harassment and wage theft, and initially filed an “abusive preemptive lawsuit” full of “false allegations” to to do it. what me Preventing Robinson from suing, enforcing her claims, destroying her reputation and destroying her job prospects.

She said none of the allegations in the lawsuit against De Niro were ever brought to her attention while she was working for him.

Robinson was 25 years old when she was hired as De Niro’s executive assistant in 2008. She claims she often worked eleven hours a day without a break to satisfy De Niro’s personal needs and endured routine humiliation in the role of “office lady” even as she climbed the corporate ladder to become production manager and later production manager. to become Vice President Finance.

“De Niro subjected Ms. Robinson to unnecessary, unwanted physical contact,” her lawsuit states. “He made sexually charged comments to her…” assigned her stereotypically feminine tasks like housework and insisted that she be available to him 24 hours a day.

“Among other things,” says the lawsuit, “De Niro will tell Ms. Robinson instructed to scratch his back, button his shirts, straighten his collars, fasten his ties and wake him up while he was lying in bed.” De Niro also stood idly by. while his girlfriend for me. beat Robinson.”

“He joked with Ms. Robinson about his Viagra prescription,” the lawsuit states. De Niro told Mrs. Robinson smiled at his young lover, who was about the same age as Mrs. Robinson was. De Niro told Ms. Robinson instructed to propose to him in the toilet. He told Ms Robinson that physical labor would “make a man of you”. De Niro suggested that Ms. Robinson can become pregnant through the sperm of her (married) male colleague.”

Robinson claims De Niro also “underpaid her because she wasn’t a male breadwinner and refused her overtime even though she put in long hours.”

In court documents unearthed by Puck, De Niro and his much younger girlfriend, martial arts instructor Tiffany Chen, describe Robinson as jealous, territorial and possibly in love with their boss – and angry that Chen arranged for Robinson to be relieved of his duties at De Niro’s Villa .

According to these documents, when Robinson threatened to quit, De Niro gave her a $300,000 annual raise to keep her happy.

Dominic Patten contributed to this report.