Weinstein Attorney: ‘Many of These Women Have Lied’

By Gene Maddaus

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Harvey Weinstein’s attorney blasted the Manhattan D.A.’s office on Wednesday, arguing that prosecutors brought a flawed case in haste due to public pressure.

Ben Brafman sent a letter to Judge James Burke, who is scheduled to hear a motion to dismiss the case next week. In it, he responded to Assistant D.A. Kevin Wilson, who accused Brafman last week of seeking to try the case in the press. Brafman argued that the New York Police Department had used the media to publicly clamor for Weinstein’s arrest, and had subjected him to a public perp walk.

“If ever a defendant or his counsel had a right to publicly respond to this adverse publicity, it is on behalf of Mr. Weinstein,” Brafman said.

Brafman has released email exchanges between Weinstein and the two women whose allegations are the subject of the criminal case. He argues that they show that the women maintained affectionate relations with Weinstein for years after the alleged sexual assaults. Brafman has also alluded to a trove of additional emails between women who are not part of the criminal case, but who could be called to give “prior bad acts” testimony.

“For the most part, these extraordinary emails suggest, beyond question, that many of these women have lied in making their complaints against Mr. Weinstein,” Brafman wrote.

In his letter last week, Wilson accused Weinstein of having “a misguided and antiquated view of how a rape victim should react after being assaulted.”

Brafman has argued that prosecutors should have shown the emails to the grand jury prior to its indictment.

“Contrary to what Mr. Wilson would have us believe, the issue before this Court is one of law and not political correctness,” Brafman wrote.

Last week, Brafman said that he had uncovered evidence that one of the accusers attended a screening where Weinstein was present hours after the alleged rape.