Prosecutors in New York have accused Harvey Weinstein's lead defense lawyer of making public statements intended to intimidate a potential witness ahead of the fallen movie mogul's retrial and asked a judge to take action.
The Manhattan district attorney's office sent a letter to the trial judge Thursday criticizing comments made by lawyer Arthur Aidala outside of court on May 1, urging the judge to instruct the defense team “not to make public statements discussing or disparaging potential witnesses in the future.”
New York's highest court last month threw out Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, ruling that the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that weren’t part of the case. In that landmark #MeToo trial, Weinstein was convicted of rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013 and of forcing himself on a TV and film production assistant, Miriam Haley, in 2006.
Weinstein, 72, has maintained his innocence.
Speaking to reporters about the case after Weinstein's first court appearance following the decision, Aidala said he believes Haley lied to the jury about her motive in coming forward, which prosecutors rebut. He said his team planned an aggressive cross-examination on the issue “if she dares to come and show her face here.”
Haley, who did not attend the court hearing, had said days earlier she was weighing whether to testify again at a retrial.
Aidala declined to comment Friday.
Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg, in the letter to Justice Curtis Farber, said the defense attorney violated state rules of professional conduct and “knowingly disregarded his professional and ethical obligations.”
"The obvious intent of his statements was to intimidate Ms. Haley and chill her cooperation with the retrial of this case,” Blumberg wrote.
Blumberg asked Farber to remind the defense counsel of their ethical obligations regarding out-of-court statements and direct them to stop making public statements about witnesses “that could materially prejudice the case.”
Weinstein's next court date is Wednesday. At the May 1 hearing, prosecutors asked for a retrial as soon as September. Farber said the trial would take place some time after Labor Day.
Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence for the Manhattan conviction, was moved from a state prison to city custody after the ruling last month by the state Court of Appeals. He also was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to 16 years in prison in California.
Haley said last month at a news conference with her attorney, Gloria Allred, that she did not want to go the trauma of testifying again, "but for the sake of keeping going and doing the right thing and because it is what happened, I would consider it.”
Allred declined comment Friday.
Weinstein’s publicist, Juda Engelmayer, claimed Friday that prosecutors have engaged in the same type of out-of-court statements they are complaining about.
“Mr. Weinstein has been dragged through an unfair and unconstitutional trial,” he wrote in an email. “And he and his lawyers will continue to speak out in favor of his innocence.”
The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley has.
Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak contributed reporting
FILE - Harvey Weinstein appears at Manhattan criminal court for a preliminary hearing on May 1, 2024, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - Arthur Aidala, attorney for Harvey Weinstein, speaks to reporters outside the Manhattan Criminal court, Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, file)
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dissolved the influential War Cabinet tasked with steering the war in Gaza, Israeli officials said Monday, a move that comes days after a key member of the body bolted the government over frustrations surrounding the Israeli leader's handling of the war.
The move was widely expected following the departure of Benny Gantz, a centrist former military chief, earlier this month. Gantz's absence from the government makes Netanyahu more dependent on his ultranationalist allies to govern and the dissolution of the War Cabinet underlines that shift as the eight-month-long war in Gaza drags on.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the change with the media, said that going forward Netanyahu would hold smaller forums with some of his government members for sensitive issues surrounding the war. That includes his security Cabinet, where far-right governing partners who oppose cease-fire deals and have voiced support for reoccupying Gaza, are members.
The War Cabinet was formed in the early days of the war, when Gantz, then an opposition party leader and Netanyahu rival, joined the coalition in a show of unity following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. He had demanded that a small decision-making body steer the war, in a bid to sideline far-right members of Netanyahu’s government.
It was made up of three members — Gantz, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant — and together they made important decisions throughout the course of the war.
The move to scrap the War Cabinet comes as Israel faces more pivotal decisions.
Israel and Hamas are weighing the latest proposal for a cease-fire in exchange for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during its attack. Israeli troops are still bogged down in the Gaza Strip, fighting in the southern city of Rafah and against pockets of Hamas resurgence elsewhere. And violence continues unabated between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah militant group — with a Biden administration envoy in the region in a bid to avert a wider war on a second front.
Netanyahu has played a balancing act throughout the war between pressures from Israel's top ally, the U.S., and the growing global opposition to the war and from his government partners, chief among them Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Both have threatened to topple the government should Israel move ahead on a cease-fire deal. The latest proposal being considered is part of the Biden administration's most concentrated push to help wind down the war. For now, progress on a deal appears to remain elusive.
Critics say Netanyahu’s wartime decision-making has been influenced by the ultranationalists in his government and by his desire to remain in power. Netanyahu denies the accusations and says he has the country’s best interests in mind.
Gantz's departure, while not posing a direct threat to Netanyahu's rule, rocked Israeli politics at a sensitive time. The popular former military chief was seen as a statesman who boosted Israel’s credibility with its international partners at a time when Israel finds itself at its most isolated. Gantz is now an opposition party leader in parliament.
Netanyahu's government is Israel's most religious and nationalist ever. In Israel's fractious parliamentary system, Netanyahu relies on a group of small parties to help keep his government afloat and without the support of Gantz's party, Netanyahu is expected to be more beholden to the far-right allies.
FILE - From left, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz speak during a news conference in the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv, Israel on Oct. 28, 2023. Israeli officials said Monday, June 17, 2024, that Netanyahu has dissolved the influential War Cabinet that was tasked with steering the war in Gaza. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP, File)
