Weinstein lawyers: We have ‘dozens and dozens of loving emails’ from accusers
Written by News on 22/01/2020
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers have said they have “dozens and dozens and dozens of loving emails” from women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.
Damon Cheronis told a Manhattan judge they want to use a trove of intimate email correspondence between Weinstein and his accusers to convince a jury that any contact was consensual.
Mr Cheronis said some of the same women who claimed they were victimised by the disgraced movie mogul “also bragged about being in a sexual relationship with him”.
The lawyer was speaking the day before the opening statements are heard in Weinstein’s rape trial in New York City on Wednesday.
Judge James Burke barred the defence from using the actual emails in a presentation planned for opening statements but permitted referring to their “substance and content”.
The jury was picked last week to decide Weinstein’s fate in a highly anticipated trial expected to last at least six weeks.
The selection process was marked by discord, including defence objections over the inclusion of a woman who wrote an upcoming novel involving young women dealing with predatory older men.
Weinstein, a once powerful and feared studio boss behind such Oscar winners as Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare In Love, is charged with raping a woman in a New York City hotel room in 2013.
He is also charged with forcibly performing a sex act on another woman at his apartment in 2006.
Weinstein, 67, has said any sexual activity was consensual.
He could be jailed for life if convicted.
Weinstein’s lawyers have tried, so far unsuccessfully, to move the trial out of New York City.
They argued that the heavy publicity has turned the case into a “carnival”, and that the media hub where celebrities and ordinary people often intersect can’t possibly give him a fair trial.
The request is now before an appeals court.
(c) Sky News 2020: Weinstein lawyers: We have ‘dozens and dozens of loving emails’ from accusers
