Accuser went to Harv event
The woman who has accused Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her years ago in a Manhattan hotel attended a film screening he hosted just hours after the alleged rape, according to emails revealed Friday.
The new information — which undermines an already faltering criminal case against the fallen Hollywood honcho — was detailed by his attorney Ben Brafman in a letter to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke.
Brafman called the correspondence “strong evidence that she was not raped on the morning of March 18, 2013” and questioned why “an alleged rape victim [would] go out of her way to spend time with her ‘rapist’ merely hours after she was allegedly attacked.”
It “must also be viewed in conjunction with the fact, already established by years of loving and congenial email communications, that [the accuser] continued a consensual sexual relationship with Mr. Weinstein for years after the alleged rape,” the filing goes on.
In 2017, Weinstein’s accuser had tried to convince a friend — who had attended the screening with her four years earlier — to come forward as a witness against Weinstein. But the friend refused, denying she’d ever been told of the sexual assault, Brafman previously revealed.
“She adores you!” the same friend wrote to Weinstein in an Oct. 28, 2013 email about the alleged victim.
On Friday, Brafman said the accuser’s pal had told detectives last year about the screening — and that her friend attended it. That information should have been turned over by the prosecution as an exculpatory disclosure, he said.
He has argued that this was a violation and that prior, similar revelations of contradictory evidence are among several grounds to dismiss the entire case.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office fired back hours later with a sharplyworded letter to the judge.
It said the emails Brafman referenced Friday are not evidence of the predator producer’s innocence.
“That the defendant has a misguided and antiquated view of how a rape victim should react after having been assaulted does not change this reality,” Assistant District Attorney Kevin Wilson wrote.
Weinstein faces a minimum of 10 years behind bars on the top count — predatory sexual assault. In addition to rape, he’s also charged with criminal sex act for allegedly forcing oral sex on a production assistant in 2006.
Prosecutors previously tossed a 2004 criminal sex act count related to former aspiring actress Lucia Evans after disclosing credibility problems.
Burke is set to rule on Brafman’s requests to either dismiss charges or order an evidentiary hearing at Weinstein’s next court appearance on Dec. 20.