NEW YORK – Prosecutors in Manhattan told a judge on Wednesday that they are evaluating new claims of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein and may file new charges against the former movie mogul before his indictment. scheduled retrial for rape later this year.
Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said at a hearing that even more people have come forward with assault claims and prosecutors are currently assessing which ones fall under the statute of limitations.
She said some potential survivors who weren’t ready to come forward during Weinstein’s first trial may now be willing to testify.
When asked by Judge Curtis Farber if there was a possibility that prosecutors would file new charges, Blumberg replied, “Yes, your honor.”
Weinstein appeared in court Wednesday afternoon at the same New York City courthouse where he was Former President Donald Trump is on trial.
He entered court in a wheelchair, as he did during other recent hearings after his 2020 conviction was thrown out.
Blumberg said prosecutors would be in a better position to inform the court about the direction of the case by the end of June. The new trial on the rape charge is tentatively scheduled for some time after Labor Day.
Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, also addressed a letter prosecutors sent to the judge last week asking him to remind Weinstein’s lawyers not to publicly discuss or discredit potential witnesses ahead of the new process.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office alleges that Aidala made statements earlier this month intended to intimidate Miriam Haley, a former TV and film production assistant convicted of sexual assault by Weinstein.
Aidala apologized to the judge, but said he had no intention of intimidating anyone and that it is the defense’s position that “lies were told at the last trial, and they will continue to be told at this trial as well.”
In response, Farber ordered both sides to “refrain from pandering to the press,” saying the case “will not be decided by the court of public opinion,” but by the court.
He also set the next court date for July 9.
The original trial against Weinstein took place in the same courtroom where Trump is now on trial, but the two men were unlikely to bump into each other. Weinstein is in custody and was taken to and from the courtroom under guard. He appeared in a courtroom on a different floor than where Trump is currently on trial.
During his trial in 2020 Weinstein was convicted of raping Jessica Mann, an aspiring actor, and of sexually assaulting Haley. But last month, New York’s highest court have withheld those convictions after determining that the judge improperly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women who were not part of the case. Weinstein, 72, has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
The New York ruling reopened a painful chapter in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures. The #MeToo era began in 2017 with a flood of accusations against Weinstein.
Speaking outside court on May 1, Aidala said Haley had lied to the jury about her motive for coming forward and that his team had planned an aggressive cross-examination on the matter “if she dares to come here and show her face .”
Haley has said she does not want to experience the trauma of testifying again, “but to move on and do the right thing and because it is what happened, I would consider it.”
The Associated Press does not generally identify people who claim they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be named, as both Haley and Mann have done.
Weinstein, who had served a 23-year prison sentence in New York, was also convicted of another rape in Los Angeles in 2022 and has still been sentenced to 16 years in prison in California.
