WEINSTEIN: I’m convinced emails put me in clear
Shamed film producer’s legal team claim rape accuser’s loving messages leave case against him ‘fatally f lawed’
DISGRACED film producer Harvey Weinstein is confident rape charges against him will be thrown out after new bombshell emails surfaced in which his accuser admitted ‘I love you’ four years after the alleged assault.
Weinstein, 66, believes the new evidence will ‘completely exonerate’ him.
In an exclusive interview with The Mail on Sunday just hours after filing an explosive 159-page motion to dismiss six charges by three women – including rape in the first and third degrees and predatory sexual assault – Weinstein’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman called the case against his client ‘fatally flawed’.
He said: ‘The emails between Mr Weinstein and the woman alleging rape in 2013 go on for four years after the alleged attack.
‘They are not just endearing chitchat but are attempts by the alleged victim to see her alleged rapist again and again. She goes out of her way to give him her new mobile number and juggle personal appointments to meet with him.
‘It is so inconsistent with what you would expect between a woman who has really been raped and the person she claims raped her. It’s stunning these emails are there and may have been ignored by the prosecutor. It’s inexcusable.’
In one email – one of about 400 between the producer and his accuser – she says ‘I love you but hate feeling like a booty call’ (a slang term for casual sex), adding a smiley-face emoji afterwards.
After the alleged rape she asks Weinstein to meet her mother and help her with a car problem while praising his ‘beautiful eyes’, adding: ‘I miss you Big Guy.’
Brafman claims another alleged victim, actress Lucia Evans – who says Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him – is not credible because she cannot pinpoint the apparent assault beyond a timeframe between June and September 2004.
‘It’s not appropriate under the law to accuse someone without a specific time, date or place. It’s ridiculous to suggest a court should allow a three-month window. How
‘I love you but hate feeling like a booty call’
can Mr Weinstein defend himself if there is no date to prove an alibi? It doesn’t make sense.’
Weinstein – who has split from his British designer wife Georgina Chapman, co-founder of fashion house Marchesa – faces six charges brought by the three women in the New York case.
He faces a maximum of life imprisonment if found guilty.
A total of nearly 80 women have claimed he sexually abused them over a three-decade period when he ran film companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company and produced a string of Oscar-winning films including Shakespeare In Love and Pulp Fiction.
But his lawyer told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The evidence simply isn’t there. In none of these three allegations is there any scientific or forensic evidence to support the claims. The facts are overwhelmingly on our side. Mr Weinstein believes he will be completely exonerated.’
Weinstein, whose company has filed for bankruptcy, is confident the charges against him will be thrown out when the case returns to court on September 20.
He is currently free on $1 million (£770,000) bail.
Friday’s motion to dismiss the case is the first time Weinstein’s
‘Sleazy, immoral and illegal behaviour’
legal team has given a detailed account of how the mogul intends to challenge what one lawyer called ‘overwhelming’ evidence against him. The lawyer said: “Harvey can afford the finest lawyers and Ben Brafman is certainly that. Good for him. He’s earning his keep. But there are 80 women who are making very similar charges against Harvey over a three-decade period. That is strong evidence of a pattern of seriously sleazy, immoral and illegal behaviour.’
The producer’s legal team have been fighting for months to obtain the emails from The Weinstein Company. Mr Brafman said: ‘Had the Grand Jury been allowed to read these emails before, they may well not have voted to indict Mr Weinstein for rape. In none of charges against him is there any scientific or forensic evidence.’
He believes Mr Weinstein’s accusers will file civil claims ‘to obtain monetary compensation’.
A source told the MoS: ‘It’s about money. The evidence simply isn’t there. Harvey and his legal team have hit back for the first time and the evidence is very damaging to the prosecution. Harvey may well get off. But it will cost him every penny he has.’
But Mr Brafman said: ‘These communications irrefutably reflect the true nature of this consensual intimate friendship which never at any time included a forcible rape.’
He said of Weinstein, who spent months at a rehab clinic in Arizona being treated for sex addiction: ‘He is doing as well as you can expect for someone who has been wrongfully accused of crimes he maintains he did not commit. He is working hard to get better and understand more about what’s happened. He recognises that, even if, as he maintains, he didn’t commit any criminal misconduct, he may not always have acted appropriately. He’s trying to become a better person.’
The Metropolitan Police in London and the Los Angeles Police Department are both currently investigating charges of sexual assault against the movie mogul.