Prosecutors reportedly plan to call as many of Weinstein’s accusers to testify as possible

A lawyer for Harvey Weinstein has expressed concern that potential jurors could be tainted by the wave of bad publicity about the former film producer, who has been arrested and is facing sexual criminal charges involving two women.

Weinstein’s attorney Benjamin Brafman, who met prosecutors and a New York judge behind closed doors on Tuesday morning, said he’d told the judge he was worried about the impact of bad PR on potential jurors following his client’s arrest last week. But Brafman also warned he was limited in what he could say publicly because a transcript of the meeting was sealed.

Speculation over Weinstein’s defense has come into focus as Manhattan prosecutors are reportedly considering a strategy of calling as many of his dozens of other accusers as possible to testify – a strategy that was successfully used to secure Bill Cosby’s rape conviction at his retrial in April.

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“They want to do it like Cosby – have as many people testify just to paint the picture,” the New York Post reported a law enforcement official as saying.



In the Cosby retrial, the presiding judge permitted six women to testify against the 80-year-old comedian, despite only one being named in the indictment. Prosecutors in New York are reportedly talking to some of the 80-plus women who have publicly accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.

Those who have identified themselves include actors Rose McGowan, Ashley Judd, Paz de la Huerta, Asia Argento and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Judge Burke has not indicated whether he will allow such testimony to be admitted at Weinstein’s expected trial, though prosecutors have indicated they may add to the two charges of rape and forced sexual contact now pending against Weinstein, who is free on $1m bail, after his arrest and initial appearance in court last Friday.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer Harvey Weinstein, exits the Manhattan criminal court. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Brafman has dismissed the notion, telling the Post that the charges against Weinstein involve one unidentified woman who had a decade-long affair with the producer.

Brafman dismissed her claim as “a truly crazy allegation of forcible rape, made by a woman who we have identified, with whom Mr Weinstein enjoyed a 10-year consensual sexual relationship that continued for years, both before and even after the date of the alleged forcible encounter.”

Brafman also dismissed the criminal sex act charges involving the former actor Lucia Evans, who claims the producer forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004.

He described the claim as “a 14-year-old allegation … that will be quickly discredited”.

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“Both of the filed charges are not only deeply flawed, but under the true facts, totally absurd,’’ he added.

Brafman did not immediately return calls from the Guardian seeking comment.