Harvey Weinstein files appeal in NYC citing trial’s ‘carnival atmosphere’

On the day of the Golden Globes, disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein — awaiting sentencing on three counts of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles — has filed an appeal over an earlier New York City case, with lawyers blaming his conviction on a “carnival atmosphere” around the trial.

Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur L. Aidala of Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins, tells Page Six that Weinstein, who was sentenced to 23 years in 2002 for rape and sexual abuse in the New York hearing, is steadfast in his claims of innocence.

“The day I met Harvey in 2019 he told me ‘I was innocent,'” Aidala says. “Despite all the negative things that have happened from 2019 to today, the one thing that hasn’t been diminished is his powerful defense of himself and his proclamations of innocence. He has not given up.”

He says Weinstein, currently imprisoned in Los Angeles, was “actively involved in the appeal, in the drafting and approving and editing of it.”

Aidala tells us that the appeal is “a trial of the trial judge,”  James Burke, and whether he “ruled fairly and accurately, whether he followed the law in his rulings about what could and couldn’t go into evidence.”

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The appeal, filed in State of New York Court of Appeals on Tuesday, claims that, “An unrelenting deluge of publicity, vocal special interest groups, and a morally outraged public, created a carnival atmosphere before and during Weinstein’s trial that deprived him of the judicial serenity and calm to which he was entitled.”

“Against this backdrop, Weinstein was stripped of the presumption of innocence and subjected to a process that bore little resemblance to the fair and impartial trial demanded by the Constitution. Put bluntly, the court of public opinion became the court in this case,” Aidala says.

The filing also claims that the judge succumbed “to the pressure of an influential social movement determined to punish centuries of male misbehavior by setting an example in convicting one man.”

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The papers go on to claim that he should be “entitled to a new trial as the jury was clearly overwhelmed by excessive prior bad act evidence, none of which shed light on disputed issues relevant to the charged offenses.”

They allege that “Weinstein was tried not only for alleged criminal acts charged in the indictment, but also for his prurient interest in women.”

The appeals also claims there was an problem with the jury because one juror failed to disclose “that she was publishing a ‘highly personal’ book about the sexual predations of older men against young women,” says the filing.

Weinstein was granted the right to bring his case before the Court of Appeals in August after a lower appeals court shot down his bid to overturn his conviction.

In February 2020, he was convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on former “Project Runway” production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi in 2006 and raping Jessica Mann in 2013.

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He was acquitted of two counts of predatory sexual assault, after it was claimed that he raped actress Annabella Sciorra in the 1990s.

Weinstein was found guilty of three counts of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles and will be sentenced on Feb. 23. His lawyers in that case had asked for a delay in order to file a motion for a new trial.

“He’s very resilient for someone who is facing the adversity he has faced on two sides of the country,” Aidala tells us. “His spirits are as high as can be imagined under the circumstances. He is not in the best of health, so he is fighting that, but his direct quote is that he is “very confident of the appeals on both coasts to set aside these verdicts and give [me] the opportunity to proclaim [my] innocence.”

More than 80 women have come forward against the former Miramax head. They helped spark the #MeToo movement, of which Weinstein is now claiming to be a victim.

In years past he would have been hobnobbing with the Hollywood elite at the Golden Globes awards show in LA, which take place this evening.

On Tuesday evening Carrie Mulligan will be competing for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing Megan Twohey, one of the two New York Times reporters who exposed his abuse, in “She Said.”