Harvey Weinstein may testify at his upcoming retrial, his lawyer exclusively tells Page Six.
The decision to put Weinstein, 72, on the stand would be unusual in such a high-profile case, but, “Harvey is an unusual guy,” says the jailed movie mogul’s high-profile defense attorney Arthur Aidala.
The legal eagle added of Weinstein taking the stand potentially, “Yeah, we’ve been kind of — I don’t want to use the word rehearsing — but talking about whether he’s going to testify.”
“Usually the defendant is the last person to testify… often it is the most difficult decision for a defense attorney to make,” says Aidala. “There are often cases where the lawyers say there’s no way, shape or form your client can testify. That’s not the case here. It is an option.”
Weinstein was convicted in 2020 of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York — but his conviction was overturned on appeal last April. His NYC case is now headed to trial April 15, with pre-trial hearings starting March 12.
“He has the transcripts [from his first trial], they were made public from five years ago, and he’s got a little time on his hands,” added Aidala, who’d just been on the phone with the onetime movie mogul on Rikers Island.
“The guy can read,” says Aidala as if harkening back to Weinstein’s days poring over screenplays — although now it’s legal docs he’s reviewing. “He powered through the [court] transcript… it’s thousands of pages. He powered through it, and he has notes on everything. He’s finally looking forward to getting his name cleared.”
“There are two side to every story,” his defense lawyer told us. “His version of events was that everything was always consensual… he had a history of courting gorgeous women, you can look at his two wives, including Georgina Chapman who was at Oscars. [He says] anything he really did was consensual.”
Fashion designer Chapman has moved on with Adrien Brody, who won as Oscar for “The Brutalist,” and mentioned Weinstein and Chapman’s kids on stage in his emotional acceptance speech.
Aidala was at his office till midnight on Monday he said, working on the high-profile case.
Weinstein has told him that if he gets released, he’ll make a movie about his lawyer.
“Part of his gratitude is that I will be starring in the first movie he makes when he gets out of prison,” says the lawyer whose clients have included Ghislaine Maxwell and Steve Bannon. “I don’t think it’s binding contractually,” he joked. But, Weinstein has told him, “Arthur when I get outta here you’ll be in my first movie,” Aidala said.
He’s hoping Weinstein wins his NYC case so he can then pursue a separate appeal in Los Angeles. The “Shakespeare In Love” producer is behind bars serving a 16-year prison sentence after his 2022 California conviction on another rape.
Aidala claims that during Weinstein’s 2020 trial, “there was so much prejudice with #MeToo.”
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