Rose McGowan’s lawyers have argued a drug possession charge should be thrown out, partly because she has been a victim of the "Harvey Weinstein machine".
The former ‘Charmed’ star – who has openly spoken about her allegations she was raped by the disgraced movie mogul – is due to face a preliminary hearing next month after authorities claimed cocaine was found in a wallet she left behind on a flight in January 2017.
However, in court papers filed on Tuesday (27.02.18), her lawyer, Jessica Carmichael, said five hours passed between Rose getting off the United flight at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., and the item being found by a cleaning crew.
The lawyer wrote: "There is simply no point in time at which the evidence places Ms. McGowan and the cocaine together in the same place."
She went on to claim the drugs could have been planted because of the "underhanded targeting of Ms. McGowan by the fallen mogul."
She wrote: "It is now public knowledge that Weinstein employed underhanded tactics to ‘silence’ his victims."
She also cited reports that Weinstein hired private investigators to follow women who had made accusations against him.
The motion also seeks dismissal on technical grounds, arguing that drug crimes taking place on a plane in interstate commerce should be handled in federal court, not state court.
Rose handed herself into police in Loudoun County, Virginia, in November in response to a felony warrant and later tweeted her concerns that the warrant was fake, as she believed it was issued on behalf of Weinstein as an attempt to discredit her after she accused him of raping her in 1997.
She wrote at the time: "Are they trying to silence me? There is a warrant out for my arrest in Virginia. What a load of HORSES**T. (sic)"
But Rose later admitted the warrant was issued earlier this year, she had every intention of turning herself in as soon as possible, but her concerns led her to hire a private investigator.
She said: "I was going to A.S.A.P, but then things started to get really weird. I knew I was being followed and that I wasn’t safe. I even hired a private investigator to investigate whether the warrant was real."
Rose McGowan seeks to have drug charge dismissed
