Harvey Weinstein Hires Lawyers Who Got Bill Cosby’s Rape Conviction Overturned to Handle California Appeal

Harvey Weinstein has hired a new legal team to appeal his rape and sexual assault conviction in California, bringing aboard at least one of the lawyers who successfully overturned the Pennsylvania conviction of Bill Cosby.

Weinstein retained Los Angeles-based Michael Freedman and Jennifer Bonjean, who is based in New York, TheWrap confirmed Monday. The attorneys from separate firms will team to handle Weinstein’s appeal of his California conviction from late last year, for which he was ordered to serve 16 years.

Bonjean, who got Bill Cosby’s 2018 conviction overturned in Pennsylvania in 2021 and has made a career of defending high-profile #MeToo clients, will act as lead counsel for Weinstein’s California appeal. Weinstein is currently serving a separate term for his conviction at a medium-security men’s facility in New York, and has an appeal underway there.

Cosby’s team argued that he didn’t get a fair trial, successfully winning his release after he served three years of a 10-year sentence. Weinstein appears to be mounting a similar argument, suggesting that legal errors and bias led to his conviction.

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