By Philip Marcelo
NEW YORK (AP) --Harvey Weinstein is appearing before a judge Wednesday afternoon in the same New York City courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial.
The disgraced movie mogul entered the court in a wheelchair, as he has during recent hearings for a retrial on rape charges after his 2020 conviction was tossed out.
Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said additional survivors have come forward with assault claims and prosecutors are currently assessing which fall under the statute of limitations.
She said some potential survivors that were not ready to step forward during Weinstein's first trial may now be willing to testify.
When asked by Judge Curtis Farber whether there was a possibility of prosecutors filing a new indictment, Blumberg replied: "Yes, your honor."
She said prosecutors would be in a better position to update the court at the end of June, when they were seeking another hearing ahead of the upcoming trial, which is tentatively scheduled for some time after Labor Day.
Weinstein's lawyer Arthur Aidala also addressed a letter prosecutors sent to the judge l ast week asking him to remind Weinstein's lawyers not to discuss or disparage potential witnesses in public ahead of the retrial.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office argues that Aidala made statements earlier this month that were meant to intimidate Miriam Haley, a former TV and film production assistant who Weinstein was convicted of sexually assaulting.
Aidala apologized to the judge but said he didn't intend to intimidate anyone and that it is the defense's position that "lies were told at the last trial, and will be told at this one."
Farber, in response, directed both sides to "refrain from pandering to press," saying the case will "not be decided in the court of public opinion" but in the court of justice.
He also set the next court date for July 9.
Weinstein's original trial was held in the same courtroom where Trump is on trial now, but the two men are unlikely to bump into each other. Weinstein is in custody and will be brought to and from the courtroom under guard. He will be appearing in a courtroom on a different floor than where Trump is currently on trial.
Weinstein was convicted of rape in the third degree for an attack on Jessica Mann, an aspiring actor, and of sexually assaulting Haley.
But last month New York's highest court threw out those convictions after determining that the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that weren't part of the case. Weinstein, 72, has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
The New York ruling reopened a painful chapter in America's reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures. The #MeToo era began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein.
Speaking outside of court on May 1, Aidala said Haley lied to the jury about her motive in coming forward and that his team planned an aggressive cross-examination on the issue "if she dares to come and show her face here."
Aidala didn't respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday about Bragg's request.
Haley has said she does not want to go through the trauma of testifying again, "but for the sake of keeping going and doing the right thing and because it is what happened, I would consider it."
Her attorney, Gloria Allred, declined to comment until after she attends Wednesday's proceedings.
The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as both Haley and Mann have.
Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence in New York, was also convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to 16 years in prison in California.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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