Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Harvey Weinstein is deploying a private detective, who used to work for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, to try to discredit the sexual-harassment and rape charges against him. The disgraced movie mogul’s lawyer, top NYC attorney Ben Brafman, and PI Herman Weisberg are aggressively investigating Weinstein’s accusers on Weinstein’s behalf.

“Herman is the real Ray Donovan who is poking holes in [current DA] Cy Vance’s case against Weinstein,” one source told me.

Prosecutors have dropped part of the case, and NYPD Det. Nicholas DiGaudio was removed for failing to turn over important evidence. Two of the four prosecutors originally assigned to the case have left the DA’s office as the problems emerged, and Brafman intends to move for dismissal.

“Herman is a talented and ferocious investigator,” Brafman told me. “But unlike Ray Donovan, Herman is scrupulously honest in the way he goes about his work.”

Weisberg, 52, retired from the NYPD in 2010 after working on such high-profile cases as the extortion plot against David Letterman, and the $600 million fraud scandal of Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski.

The detective then founded Sage Intelligence Group, where he specializes in quietly handling extortion plots against the rich and famous.

Having worked as the lead investigator for Vance’s predecessor, Robert Morgenthau, Weisberg knows the inner workings of the DA’s office.

“Brafman will try to prove in court . . . [that] the prosecutors are relying on people who are not telling the truth,” said one source.