This week, a grand jury in New York may bring further charges against Harvey Weinstein for alleged sexual misconduct, a source said on Wednesday.
A person with knowledge of the process informed NBC News that a grand jury in New York had been constituted to consider whether to file further charges against the disgraced former movie mogul. They said that an announcement on the outcome may come as soon as Friday.
“We will be prepared for whatever comes our way, they are going to do whatever they can to make sure Harvey doesn’t see the light of day,” said Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, in a statement released on Wednesday.
In an email to NBC News, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office refused to comment.
The New York Court of Appeals reversed Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction in April, ruling 4-3 that the trial judge had no right to let several witnesses to testify since their accusations were not included in the charges brought against the star.
The prosecutor said in July that it intended to interview more claimed victims but that Weinstein would face the same accusations from the 2020 trial in a retrial.
Judge Curtis Farber scheduled the trial for November 12 a few weeks later, and a person familiar with the matter indicated that any further charges that could arise would probably be included in the same trial.
In 2022, Weinstein was found guilty in a different rape case in Los Angeles, and he was originally sentenced to 23 years in prison for forcing oral sex on a former TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for attacking another woman in 2013. Weinstein is currently incarcerated at the Rikers Island jail complex in New York.
The 16-year jail term and the conviction are being appealed by Weinstein’s legal team.
The Academy Award-winning producer has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by over 80 people in total. The #MeToo movement, which saw prominent Hollywood men exposed for purported abuses of power, was sparked by the accusations, which were originally covered by The New York Times and The New Yorker.
According to Weinstein, all sexual interactions were consenting.