NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein is scheduled to appear before a judge Wednesday afternoon in the same New York courtroom where Former President Donald Trump is on trial.
Weinstein awaits new trial on rape charges 2020 conviction was thrown away. Wednesday’s hearing will address several legal issues related to the upcoming trial, which is scheduled for sometime after Labor Day.
Weinstein’s original trial was held in the same courtroom where Trump is now on trial, but the two men are unlikely to meet. Weinstein is in custody and will be taken to and from court under guard. He will appear in court on a different floor than where Trump is currently on trial.
Weinstein was convicted of third-degree rape for attacking Jessica Mann, an aspiring actress, and for sexually assaulting Miriam Haley, a former TV and film production assistant.
But last month New York’s highest court rejected these convictions after ruling that the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women who were not part of the case. Weinstein, 72, said any sexual activity was consensual.
O New York ruling reopened a painful chapter in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures. O #MeToo era began in 2017 with a barrage of accusations against Weinstein.
Last weekprosecutors asked Judge Curtis Farber to remind Weinstein’s lawyers not to discuss or belittle potential witnesses in public before the new trial.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office argued that Weinstein’s lead lawyer, Arthur Aidala, made statements intended to intimidate Haley earlier this month.
Talking outside the court on May 1, Aidala said that Haley lied to the jury about her reason for coming forward and that her team planned an aggressive interrogation on the matter “if she dares to come and show her face here.”
Aidala did not respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday about Bragg’s request.
Haley said she doesn’t want to go through the trauma of testifying again, “but to go ahead and do the right thing and because that’s what happened, I would consider it.”
His attorney, Gloria Allred, declined to comment until after appearing at Wednesday’s proceedings.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people who allege sexual assault unless they agree to be identified, as Haley and Mann did.
Weinstein, who was serving a 23-year sentence in New York, was also convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to 16 years in prison in California.
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Follow Filipe Marcelo on twitter.com/philmarcelo.
