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#MeToo Founder Says Not To Discredit The Movement Following Sexual Assault Allegations Against Asia Argento

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The founder of #MeToo said not to discredit the movement Monday following sexual assault allegations against Italian actress Asia Argento.

Tarana Burke, the leader of #MeToo, said to not let people discredit the movement despite Argento being accused Sunday of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old boy in 2013, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Argento became a strong advocate of the #MeToo movement after claiming that disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein raped her in 1997, The New Yorker reported.

“People will use these recent news stories to try and discredit this movement – don’t let that happen. This is what Movement is about,” Burke wrote on Twitter. (RELATED: #MeToo Leader Allegedly Paid Off A Man She Sexually Assaulted)

Burke also noted that the #MeToo movement is for everyone and praised the “brave young men who are now coming forward,” in a Twitter post.

Argento allegedly sexually assaulted her former costar Jimmy Bennett, then 17, in a hotel room in 2013. The #MeToo activist then paid Bennett $380,000 to stay mum about the alleged incident. She previously played Bennett’s mother in the 2004 film “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things,” The New York Times reported.

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