Photo by Raymond Hall/GC ImagesHarvey Weinstein asked a New York City judge on Friday to throw out the two indictments returned against him in the last few months, arguing the Manhattan District Attorney’s office failed to meet its technical burden when it filed a series of sex crimes charges against him.
A new court document cites 40 emails that Weinstein’s lawyer says prove the woman he allegedly raped was no victim, but a consensual sexual partner.
In a statement to ABC News, sefense attorney Ben Brafman said that the emails “irrefutably reflect the true nature of this consensual intimate friendship, which never at any time included a forcible rape.”
Weinstein is charged with, among other things, predatory sexual assault, criminal sex act and rape, stemming from alleged encounters with three different women.
He has pleaded not guilty and denied non-consensual sex with any person.
The unnamed woman who accused Weinstein of raping her on March 18, 2013 in a Manhattan hotel, “sent extensive warm, complimentary and solicitous messages to Mr. Weinstein immediately following the now-claimed event and over the next four-year period,” Brafman said.
“[I] hope to see you sooner than[] later…” a message from the alleged victim on April 11, 2013 read, according to the provided documents. “I appreciate all you do for me, it shows,” read another that was sent the following day.
A little more than a month after the alleged rape, another message from the alleged victim to Weinstein read: “It would be great to see you again, and catch up! It would mean a lot if we could catch up over a drink…”
The defense motion claimed the emails, “would appear to contradict that [the woman] ever believed she had been forcibly raped.”
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