Prosecutors have indicated plans to potentially bring new witnesses against disgraced Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein during a hearing related to his rape retrial.
"Some people who were not ready to speak out in 2020 now appear ready to do so in 2024," Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg revealed as Weinstein sat in his wheelchair alongside his defense team in the courtroom Wednesday afternoon, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
At the same time, Blumberg filed a letter to Judge Curtis Farber to direct Weinsteins' attorneys from issuing statements that may intimidate potential future witnesses, after attorney Arthur Aidala made questionable statements to the press earlier this month directed at production assistant plaintiff Miriam Haley, accusing her of lying to the jury about her motive to come forward.
He said he planned a vigorous cross-examination, "if she dares to come and show her face here," the Associated Press previously reported.
Last month, the Court of Appeals threw out Weintein's 2020 rape and sexual assault convictions brought against him by aspiring actress Jessica Mann and Haley after a panel of judges ruled unfair testimony from other women who weren't part of the case was permitted, according to the outlet.
As a result, his 23-year prison sentence in New York was overturned.
Haley said she was mulling over whether or not she planned to testify again at Weinstein's retrial, "but for the sake of keeping going and doing the right thing and because it is what happened, I would consider it," according to the AP.
Weinstein, 72, remains imprisoned after he was sentenced to 16 years for rape and sex assault in separate cases in California, but a lawyer for the convicted sex offender previously argued those 2022 convictions should also be tossed.
"You have to understand that when that Los Angeles jury walked into that courtroom, not only did every potential juror understand that there were allegations generally in the media that he was alleged to have committed these heinous sex crimes," Jennifer Bonjean said, according to NewsNation. "But what they also understood and knew was that he was a convicted felon, he came into that courtroom with the stamp of convicted felon on his back."
Weinstein has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and alleged any sex was consensual.
His retrial is tentatively scheduled for after Labor Day.
