By Philip Marcelo | Associated Press
NEW YORK — Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday that they intend to bring new sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein as they anticipate a November retrial for the disgraced media mogul.
Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said in court that prosecutors are actively pursuing claims of rape that occurred in Manhattan within the statute of limitations.
She said some potential survivors that were not ready to step forward during Weinstein’s first New York trial have indicated they are now willing to testify.
But when pressed by the judge, Blumberg said prosecutors have not yet brought their findings to a grand jury. She also said she could not provide the court a timeline for when their investigation will be complete.
“The People are still investigating in a trauma-informed manner,” she said. “That is an ongoing process.”
Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala, with his client sitting next to him in a wheelchair, suggested the investigation was simply a delay tactic from prosecutors, saying something similar happened ahead of the initial rape trial.
“Once again, they’re doing the ‘1-800-Get-Harvey,” he said outside the courthouse following the morning hearing. “They’re trying to find someone else to come forward because I guess they feel that their current case is not strong enough.”
In court, Blumberg rejected the notion and said the prosecution’s plan is to proceed to trial in the fall.
“There’s certainly no delay tactics on our part,” she said. “We’re proceeding in the most expeditious manner.”
When asked by Judge Curtis Farber what month she anticipated, Blumberg responded: “November would be a realistic timeframe.”
Aidala said his client simply wants to get the trial going as soon as possible, noting he’s in his fifth year of incarceration.
“He’s suffering tremendously,” Aidala said, adding that the 72-year-old suffers from macular degeneration, fluid in his lungs and heart and diabetes that is “through the roof” because of the poor diet behind bars.
“He’s basically getting no treatment for any of it,” Aidala said. “He’s not a young man. He’s a sick man.”
“These tactics from prosecutors are just delay, delay, delay,” he added.
Judge Farber set the next pre-trial hearing for July 19.
Among those in the packed courtroom Tuesday was Jessica Mann, the former actor Weinstein was convicted of raping his 2020 trial.
Mann did not speak to reporters but prosecutors have said she is prepared to testify against Weinstein again.
Weinstein’s other accuser, Mimi Haley, did not attend Tuesday’s hearing and has expressed reluctance about going through the trauma of testifying again. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, said in an email Tuesday that her client has not yet made her decision about participating in the retrial.
The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann have.
Weinstein has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
He’s currently in custody at the city’s Rikers Island jail complex where his lawyers complain he’s not receiving adequate medical care and remains essentially in solitary confinement.
“He was in better shape before his case was reversed when he was upstate in a hospital facility and he was getting treatment and medication,” Aidala said Tuesday after the hearing.
Behind bars, Weinstein calls his representatives nearly every day and reads “profusely,” he added. His latest read is a book about 20th Century Fox and the movie industry.
In April, New York’s highest court threw out Weinstein’s rape conviction after determining the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case.
The 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 allegations against Weinstein.
Weinstein, who had been 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. But in an appeal filed last month in California’s Second District Court of Appeal, Weinstein’s lawyers argued he did not get a fair trial in Los Angeles.