Harvey Weinstein
Weinstein Defense Team Falling Apart
Weinstein’s ‘Dream Team’ of Defense Lawyers Falls Apart
In the six months since Harvey Weinstein built his new “dream team” of heavy-hitting lawyers to represent him against sexual assault charges in Manhattan, the movie producer’s carefully selected legal cast has completely fallen apart.
Mr. Weinstein, whose alleged sexual misconduct set in motion the global #MeToo movement, and his first lawyer parted ways in January. He then hired a team that included a former Manhattan prosecutor and three attorneys who had defended celebrities and some of the country’s most vilified defendants.
But one by one, Mr. Weinstein’s new lawyers have bowed out. With less than three months until the trial begins, Jose Baez, one of the producer’s last remaining lawyers, asked a State Supreme Court justice in Manhattan to allow him to withdraw from the case, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private communications.
“Mr. Weinstein has been aware since at least May 15 that it was very unlikely that I would be able to continue on this case,” Mr. Baez said in a letter to Justice James Burke on Friday.
Mr. Baez did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Mr. Weinstein formed his team of star lawyers after he parted ways with Benjamin Brafman, a prominent defense lawyer in Manhattan, following weeks of intense arguing.
Mr. Weinstein, 67, faces charges that he raped one woman, who has not been identified, at a Midtown hotel in March 2013, and forced a second woman, Mimi Haleyi, a production assistant, to let him perform oral sex on her at his Manhattan apartment in 2006.
Mr. Weinstein has denied the allegations and has said the sexual encounters were consensual.
Mr. Baez’s request comes weeks after his partner, Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., stepped down, and five days after he had assured the justice he could handle the case.
Mr. Sullivan, a law professor and a faculty dean of an undergraduate house at Harvard University, came under fire by students there for representing Mr. Weinstein.
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Harvey Weinstein Accused Of Sexually Assaulting 16-Year-Old Virgin — peoples trust toronto
One of the latest allegations of sexual assault to emerge against disgraced Hollywood producer (and Clinton and Obama power-donor) Harvey Weinstein is one of the most sickening yet. According to court documents cited by the BBC and New York Post, a former model and actress identified only as Jane Doe is alleging that Weinstein sexually […]
via Harvey Weinstein Accused Of Sexually Assaulting 16-Year-Old Virgin — peoples trust toronto