Harvey Weinstein changes legal team as New York retrial approaches.

Harvey Weinstein A new attorney has been hired as a retrial approaches in a New York sexual assault case. The imprisoned former Hollywood mogul has ditched his powerful team for his next moment in court while his longtime lawyers conduct an appeal of another of his convictions.

Agnifilo Intrater’s Jacob Kaplan has been bugged by a disgraced convicted rapist. The Hollywood Reporter You confirmed. A scheduled court appearance was postponed from Wednesday to next week to iron out details of the upcoming trial. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are working to resolve the remaining third-degree rape charges that have gone to trial, but could still go to trial.

Weinstein has been in prison for four years and was initially sentenced to a vacant 23-year New York sentence in 2020 after his New York trial ended in a guilty verdict. The 73-year-old former Hollywood kingmaker was originally convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and third-degree rape in New York. But in April 2024, the New York Court of Appeals overturned the ruling, ruling in a 4-3 decision that the 2020 trial judge had allowed testimony from the women whose charges were not included in the formal charges.

Weinstein’s retrial in March is scheduled to take place after the first retrial in 2025. The partial jury verdict could not determine whether Weinstein raped actress Jessica Mann. On retrial, he was found guilty of forcing oral sex on a former woman, Miriam Haley. project runway He was retried and found not guilty of forcing oral sex on former model Kaja Sokola. The trial on the third-degree rape charge comes after the former mogul did not respond to a plea offer that would have seen him serve concurrently and include time served on the sexual assault and rape charges.

Weinstein’s bid for a new trial based on jury coercion claims for a 2025 retrial was recently denied by the court.

Kaplan, who represented killer Luigi Mangione in a state murder case, will be joined by colleagues Marc Agnifilo, who represented Mangione, and Teny Geragos, who recently represented Sean “Diddy” Combs in his sex trafficking and racketeering trial.

Weinstein’s previous team of lawyers, from the firm Aidala Bertuna & Kamins, which took the case to the first two trials, will continue working on an appeal of his latest ruling. Attorney Arthur Aidala said “serious errors” in the latest conviction would be reviewed. He is confident it will be overturned.

“As Harvey Weinstein’s trial attorneys, we have fought hard to protect his rights and ensure he receives a fair trial,” Idara said in a statement. neck. “Our work does not end here. We will continue to advocate vigorously on his behalf in the Court of Appeals. We are confident that the serious legal errors will be addressed and his most significant convictions will ultimately be overturned, as we have achieved in the past.”

“We also continue to represent Mr. Weinstein in all pending civil matters and fully support his new counsel in any way necessary to ensure a coordinated and comprehensive legal strategy,” he added.

In addition to the New York conviction, Weinstein was found guilty in a separate West Coast trial in 2022 of rape and sexual assault of one of the four women he was accused of assaulting in Los Angeles. Although his New York conviction was vacated, he remains imprisoned in New York’s Rikers Island jail following his LA conviction.