Harvey Weinstein’s defence team have been placed under a gag order.
The 67-year-old disgraced producer is currently awaiting a jury verdict in his sexual assault trial in Manhattan – in which he is being tried for five counts pertaining to sexual assault, including two counts of predatory sexual assault, two counts of rape and one count of criminal sex act – and on Tuesday (18.02.20) the judge in his case issued a gag order on his defence team, to stop them from speaking about the case outside of the courtroom.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke made the decision after Weinstein’s lead lawyer Donna Rotunno penned an op-ed piece – titled ‘Jurors in My Client Harvey Weinstein’s Case Must Look Past the Headlines’ – imploring the jury to acquit her client, which was published in Newsweek magazine over the weekend.
He told the defence: "Defence team, you’re ordered to refrain from communicating to the press until there is a verdict in the [case], and I’d caution you about the tentacles of your public relations juggernaut."
Burke was alerted to the piece following complaints from Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon – who is leading the case for the prosecution – who slammed the op-ed as "inappropriate" and called for Weinstein to be "reprimanded" as punishment.
She said: "In the op-ed piece, she actually speaks directly to the jury. It is completely 100 percent inappropriate behaviour. It borders on tampering with a jury … it was in direct violation of your direct orders.
"If this is the conduct allowed to persist in this courthouse, Judge, then we are all lost. Judge, there is no way that Miss Rotunno did this without the prompting and the encouragement and the knowledge and the permission of this defendant. It’s akin to jury tampering."
Jury deliberations are expected to begin on Tuesday, following the closing statements which were made at the end of last week.
In Rotunno’s final argument, she urged the jury to use "common sense" to find Weinstein not guilty of the allegations.
She said: "The district attorneys have failed to make their case beyond a reasonable doubt, and on behalf of Mr. Weinstein, we are imploring you to tell them that by [ruling] not guilty.
"You may have had a gut feeling that Harvey Weinstein was guilty. Throw that gut feeling right out the window.
"You need to show that here in New York City, in the United States of America, we don’t cave to pressure. The time to do the right thing is right now.
"I’m going to ask that you use your New York City common sense. Every time you feel emotion taking over, let common sense guide you. This is not a popularity contest … in this country, it’s the unpopular people that need juries most."
Whilst Illuzi-Orbon slammed the former Miramax boss as an "abusive rapist".
She argued: "To the lead defendant it has been said he was the master of the universe and the witnesses here were merely ants that he could step on without consequences.
"Moreover he felt like he had a surefire insurance policy that the witnesses were standing in line to get into his universe. ‘The universe is run by me’, and therefore they don’t get to complain when they’re stepped on, spit on, demoralised and raped and abused by the defendant.
"He made sure he had contact with the people he was worried about … to make sure they wouldn’t walk out of the shadows and call him exactly what he was – an abusive rapist."
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, and has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
Harvey Weinstein’s defence team placed under gag order
