New York prosecutors planning to retry Harvey Weinstein after his 2020 rape conviction was recently overturned said Tuesday that they are investigating additional allegations of sexual assault and could present new charges to a grand jury by the fall.
At a court hearing in Manhattan, Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said her office could be ready for a November retrial, countering Weinstein’s defense lawyer, Arthur Aidala, who said his client is in fragile health and “is begging us to move forward” with a sooner trial date.
“He is a sick man and he wants to get out,” Aidala said of Weinstein, 72, “and the prosecution is putting on motions about protective orders and it is delay, delay, delay.”
The once-powerful Hollywood producer was brought into court in a wheelchair and appeared gaunt and pale, clutching a copy of the nonfiction book, “20th Century-Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Film Studio.”
Aidala accused prosecutors of attempting to secure new charges against Weinstein simply because he is a defendant and that it was “unfair” to find additional victims when his case has been overturned.
“Once again, we have a hotline: 1-800-GET-HARVEY,” Aidala said.
Blumberg told Judge Curtis Farber that prosecutors had known of other women claiming rape, but they were not willing to come forward for the trial four years ago.
“As we said in 2020, there were women who were not ready to proceed with the legal process,” Blumberg said. “Some of those women are now ready to proceed.”
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison related to forcibly performing oral sex on a former TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on another woman, an aspiring actress, in 2013.
His conviction symbolized a watershed moment under the #MeToo movement for how powerful men could be held accountable for sexual assault in Hollywood and other industries.
But in April, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the trial judge had erred by allowing additional witnesses to testify at Weinstein’s 2020 trial, even though their allegations were not part of the actual charges against him. Prosecutors had asked that their testimonies be permitted to show a larger pattern of Weinstein’s alleged behavior.
But he remains behind bars at the Rikers Island jail complex in New York because of his conviction in a separate rape case in Los Angeles in 2022. His legal team last month filed an appeal in that case, in which he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Weinstein has maintained that any sexual encounters were consensual.
Blumberg on Tuesday said the additional charges against Weinstein that her office is considering are within the state’s statute of limitations. While it’s unclear what the exact charges would entail, legislation in 2019 extended the statute of limitations for second-degree rape from five years to 20 years and for third-degree rape from five years to 10 years.
The judge in Weinstein's case scheduled another hearing for July 19 to discuss the sharing of evidence with the defense.
Outside court, Aidala told reporters that time is of the essence as Weinstein’s health worsens and he struggles with diabetes and a spinal condition that makes walking difficult. He said he was optimistic about his client’s chances at a retrial.
“We don’t think there is anything there,” Aidala said.
