GRAND JURY ON HARVEY AT LAST
A Manhattan grand jury is finally weighing sex-assault charges against Harvey Weinstein for the alleged rape of “Boardwalk Empire” actress Paz de la Huerta and model Lucia Evans, The Post has learned.
Subpoenas have been issued by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to the disgraced movie mogul’s closest associates, compelling them to either testify or submit documents in lieu of taking the witness stand, sources said Friday.
The grand jury was impaneled in the past two weeks, sources said.
The panel may be considering charges involving alleged embezzlement, too. Subpoenas were also issued for various records dating as far back Panel also may be eyeing $$ dealings as 2004, including phone records, e-mails and financial documents related to Weinstein, The Weinstein Company and other businesses he owned, sources said.
Top prosecutor Joan Illuzzi — who spearheaded the sexual-assault and attempted-rape case against former International Monetary Fund Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn and recently won a murder conviction in the 1979 disappearance of Etan Patz — is handling the case herself, sources said. The StraussKahn case was ultimately dropped by prosecutors.
Weinstein has been accused of forcing Evans, then a college student, to perform oral sex on him in his Tribeca office in 2004 and raping de la Huerta on two occasions in Manhattan in 2010.
The two women are among more than 80 who have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment and abuse over decades.
The 66-year-old dad of five, who sources said is hiding out in Arizona, is also being investigated in LA and London. He has not been criminally charged.
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. declined to prosecute Weinstein for allegedly groping Italian model Ambra Gu- tierrez in March 2015, saying cops didn’t gather enough evidence in the case.
Two Weinstein accusers filed lawsuits against the fallen filmmaker this week.
Actress Ashley Judd, one of the first women to come forward with allegations, sued Weinstein in Los Angeles Superior Court for defamation and sexual harassment.
Weinstein also was slapped with a suit for allegedly repeatedly raping and sexually assaulting Alexandra Canosa, a former producer for Netflix’s “Marco Polo.”
In her suit, Canosa said the assaults began in 2010 and continued until 2015.
Through a spokeswoman, Weinstein has denied “any allegations of nonconsensual sex.”
A rep for Weinstein’s lawyer didn’t comment Friday, nor did the Manhattan DA’s Office.