Lena Dunham Defends Man Accused of Sexual Assault

And some people aren't happy
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 18, 2017 3:43 PM CST
Lena Dunham Supports Man Accused of Sexual Assault
Jenni Konner and Lena Dunham attend the NYFW Spring/Summer 2018 fifth annual Fashion Media Awards at the Four Seasons Hotel Downtown on Friday, Sept. 8, 2017, in New York.   (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP)

Lena Dunham has come to the defense of a man accused of sexually assaulting a teenager, and some people aren't happy. The Wrap reports actress Aurora Perrineau filed a police report Friday with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department in which she accuses Murray Miller, a writer and executive producer on Girls, of sexually assaulting her in 2012. Perrineau, who says she passed a polygraph in September, says she was out with friends when the then-35-year-old Miller started flirting with her despite her telling him multiple times she was only 17. She says she and her friends gave him a ride to his house, and “at some point, I woke up in Murray’s bed naked. He was on top of me having sexual intercourse with me. At no time did I consent to any sexual contact."

Dunham and Girls co-creator Jenni Konner issued a statement Friday saying they are "confident that sadly this accusation is one of the 3% of assault cases that are misreported every year," People reports. The statement concludes: "We stand by Murray and this is all we’ll be saying about this issue.” But Dunham continued online, tweeting: “The first tenet of my politics is to hold up the people who have held me up.” That didn't sit will after Dunham had been actively speaking out against other accused men. According to Us Weekly, one Twitter user pointed out a tweet from August in which Dunham said women "don't lie about" rape. "Never call yourself an advocate for women again," another person tweeted. And Weinstein-accuser Asia Argento added: "You wrote me an email of support a few weeks ago and now you defend a rapist? WTF." (More Lena Dunham stories.)

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