Weinstein tries to use ‘ warm’ mails to toss out case

Weinstein asks court to quash all abuse charges alleging that he had a ‘ long- term, consensual, intimate relationship’ with the woman

New York: Harvey Weinstein’s defense lawyer on Friday demanded that a New York court dismiss the sex crimes charges against him, explosively disclosing “warm” emails between the disgraced Hollywood tycoon and his alleged rape victim, in which she said “I love you.”

Ben Brafman, one of America's most celebrated defense attorneys who helped former IMF boss Dominique Strauss- Kahn escape criminal prosecution for alleged sexual assault in 2011, called for the entire indictment against Weinstein to be dismissed, based on the emails and a barrage of technicalities.

The 66- year- old former Tinseltown titan is out on bail and has pleaded not guilty to six counts allegedly committed against three women in 2004, 2006 and 2013. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 20.

His arrest and arraignments have led # MeToo campaigners to hope that the twice- married father of five — whom nearly 100 women have publicly accused of sexual misconduct — will be put on trial, convicted and sent to prison.

But Brafman’s filing demanded that the indictment “be dismissed at the pre- trial stage,” saying that the district attorney's failure to present the emails had tainted the grand jury's indictment process. Messages sent from weeks to four years after the alleged 2013 rape showed that Weinstein and the woman were in a “long- term, consensual, intimate relationship” that never once referred to an assault, Brafman claimed.

The lawyer described the dozens of messages as “warm, complimentary and solicitous” and as reflecting “the true nature of this consensual intimate friendship, which never at any time included a forcible rape”.

“Hope you are well and call me anytime, always good to hear your voice,” she allegedly wrote to him in August 2013, five months after the claimed assault.

In January 2014, the defense quoted her as writing: “Your [ sic] the one who makes it look good with your smile and beautiful eyes!!” "There is no one else I would enjoy catching up with that understands me quite like you,” she said.