Harvey Weinstein brought in a new team of attorneys from Agnifilo Intrater for his third New York rape trial, which is slated to begin at the beginning of March.
The trio of lawyers, Jacob Kaplan, Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, two of whom are representing Luigi Mangione in his state and federal murder cases, confirmed their involvement to amNew York Law Thursday.
Weinstein’s publicist said that the disgraced ex-Hollywood producer would continue to keep Arthur Aidala’s firm Aidala Bertuna & Kamins on the appeal of the June conviction that he had forced oral sex on former “Project Runway” assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, but the firm would not be involved in the upcoming trial.
“Harvey intends to concentrate his efforts on preparing for a potential retrial of the undecided charge,” said Weinstein’s spokesperson Juda Englemayer in a statement. “Harvey believes that, after two prior trials on this matter, a recalibrated outlook and strategic approach offers the most effective path forward.”
Agnifilo and Kaplan recently notched a win in the Mangione case when they successfully got a federal judge to take capital punishment off the table for the man accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Agnifilo and Geragos also represented Sean “Diddy” Combs in his recent trial, securing acquittals on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Kaplan declined to comment further on the Weinstein trial.
Arthur Aidala, head of the defense team at Aidala Bertuna & Kamins, which has represented the disgraced Hollywood producer in his previous two trials, said that it would continue to represent Weinstein in civil matters in addition to the appeals case.
“Our work does not end here. We will continue to advocate forcefully on his behalf in the appellate courts, where we are confident that serious legal errors will be addressed and his most significant conviction will ultimately be overturned, as we have achieved in the past,” Aidala said in a statement.
Legal publication Law360 first reported the legal team swap.
