Attorney Benjamin Brafman, 69, (pictured) defended Harvey Weinstein in an interview

Harvey Weinstein's lawyer has defended his client's alleged sexual misconduct as a product of Hollywood culture, calling the 'casting couch' a distasteful tradition but not illegal.

'The casting couch in Hollywood was not invented by Harvey Weinstein,' high-flight attorney Benjamin Brafman, 69, said in a lengthy profile by the Times of London published on Saturday.

'If a woman decides that she needs to have sex with a Hollywood producer in order to advance her career and actually does it and finds the whole thing offensive, that's not rape,' Brafman continued.

'You made a conscious decision that you're willing to do something that is personally offensive in order to advance your career. Now, however offensive the whole saga may be on both of your parts, that's not a crime.

'That's bad in many ways, when you look at it. But that's been the reputation of that industry [since] before I was born.'

Harvey Weinstein is seen with Gwyneth Paltrow in 2002. She has said he summoned her to his hotel room to suggest a massage after casting her in Emma in 1996

More than 70 women have accused Weinstein of a range of sexual misconduct, including rape.

Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone, but apologized for 'the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past'.

Some of the allegations against him did recall the storied 'Hollywood casting couch', with young actresses claiming they were invited to a casting meeting with Weinstein and then subjected to sexual overtures.

'There was no explicit mention that to star in one of those films I had to sleep with him, but the subtext was there,' Heather Graham recalled of casting meetings with Weinstein in an op-ed for Variety.

Brafman, in the new interview, claimed Weinstein's behavior was par for the course in Hollywood, and blamed a mob mentality for the rush of accusers last fall.

'What you have now is there are people who have been emboldened by the climate to speak out who would never have gone public with their claims years before,' Brafman said.

'I have found that a lot of the people who are condemning him could never withstand the scrutiny in their personal lives that he has been exposed to. If they had that type of horrific investigation, they would come out with many flaws that you could then exploit in the tabloids,' he added.

Heather Graham (left) and Brit Marling (right) have both penned essays describing their encounters with Weinstein, saying he turned meetings into overtures for 'massage'

Brafman (pictured) is a high-profile attorney who has defended mobsters, pharma-bro Martin Shkreli and musicians such as P Diddy, Jay-Z and Michael Jackson

Weinstein himself has been accused of keeping a stable of tabloid journalists on his payroll or otherwise under his influence, using them to smear women who refused his advances or threatened to expose him.

In one case, after Italian actress Ambra Battilana Gutierrez filed a sexual assault complaint against him in 2015, she found herself the subject of tawdry reports that she'd attended Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous 'bunga bunga' parties.

'I'm not prepared to condemn him simply because he has lived during a period of time in a manner that may not be appropriate or may be embarrassing,' Brafman told the Times. 'But there's a big difference between that and criminal conduct.'

Criminal probes into Weinstein are ongoing in Los Angeles, New York and London, but so far, no criminal charges have been filed.

Brafman said he didn't expect any criminal prosecution against Weinstein to pan out: 'I see many of the allegations against him [that] would suggest criminal conduct, when you drill down and really look at the facts and complaints I don't believe many of them to be true.'

Weinstein is seen with Paltrow (center) and Liv Taylor in 2008. His lawyer has spoken out to defend the movie mogul and say his actions were a product of the times

Asia Argento (left) claimed Weinstein performed forced oral sex on her and Daryl Hannah (right) says she repeatedly rebuffed his advances. Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone

Weinstein has kept a low profile since the flood of allegations was unleashed last fall, rarely denying specific allegations and surfacing in occasional public sightings in Arizona.

Brafman said his advice to Weinstein has been to maintain the low profile, at least for now.

'It's very hard to convince a high-profile person to keep getting punched in the face and not punch back,' he said.

'There are whole hosts of people in Harvey's life who I could take significant swings at right now and we're not doing it because I'm not looking to create more controversy and I'm not looking to be viewed as someone who is victimizing again people who believe they were previously victimized.

'It doesn't help Harvey, it doesn't help me and it doesn't help the case.'