Harvey Weinstein’s 2013 rape accuser tried to “fabricate” a witness when she came forward with her allegations last year — four years after the alleged encounter, his lawyers charged Thursday.
Weinstein, who faces a minimum of 10 years behind bars on the top count in his sex assault indictment, is seeking to have the criminal case dismissed on several grounds, including that the investigation was corrupt.
His lawyer Ben Brafman said the woman who said she was forcibly raped by Weinstein at a Doubletree Hotel on Lexington Ave. tried to recruit her former best friend as a deponent — even though the accusation was news to the other woman.
“According to the witness, (the accuser) reached out to her — after not speaking to her for more than two years — and said to her that Mr. Weinstein had assaulted (her) a few years ago in New York,” Brafman wrote in the filing. “She then asked the witness to assist (her) with the accusation she was making against Mr. Weinstein, presumably so as to serve as a prompt outcry witness.”
“The witness responded that (the accuser) never ever told her that she was assaulted or raped by Mr. Weinstein,” the filing continues. “The witness further told (the accuser) that she did not want to be involved with (the accuser’s) allegations against Mr. Weinstein.”
The court papers are part of a battle in writing between Brafman and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Prosecutors recently defended their case even after they were forced to dismiss a count of criminal sex act related to one victim — former aspiring actress Lucia Evans — who said she was forced to perform oral sex on Weinstein at his Tribeca office in 2004.
The DA’s office accused the lead NYPD detective on the case of withholding exculpatory information relating to Evans and they also uncovered an email draft Evans authored to her husband in 2015 in which she undermined her own account.
The defense probe “has revealed substantial additional exculpatory information that has also been withheld from Mr. Weinstein — including the fact that one of the two remaining complaining witnesses...may have attempted to fabricate a ‘prompt outcry’ witness, years after the alleged assault,” Brafman wrote in Thursday’s document.
Weinstein’s defense team previously revealed that the rape accuser swapped some 40 affectionate and flirtatious emails with the fallen Hollywood honcho in the four years after she says she was attacked in March 2013.
She had a 10-year ongoing consensual relationship with the producer, who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by dozens of women in the entertainment business.
Weinstein, who is facing several lawsuits, has been criminally charged only in Manhattan Supreme Court.
While charges were pending against him in connection to alleged attacks against three women, he now stands charged with two counts of pattern conduct, which carry a minimum of 10 years behind bars.
There are two counts of rape related to the 2013 accuser and a count of criminal sex act in connection to Mimi Haleyi, a former production assistant who says Weinstein forced a sex act on her in 2006.
The DA’s office declined to comment.
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