Harvey Weinstein’s defense attorney has said he doesn’t want to represent him anymore and has filed to withdraw from his case.
According to reports, attorney Jose Baez filed papers asking the court to let him withdraw from Weinstein’s sexual assault case. The move comes after the fallen movie mogul hired a different attorney to communicate with Baez.
“First, Mr. Weinstein has engaged in behavior that makes this representation unreasonably difficult to carry out effectively and has insisted upon taking actions with which I have fundamental disagreements. Mr. Weinstein has deliberately disregarded our fee agreement and has had outside counsel indicate that he intends to continue to do so,” Baez noted in the filing.
Before now, Baez has defended Casey Anthony and Aaron Hernandez, winning them both acquittals. He is not the first attorney to have withdrawn as Weinstein’s counsel in the criminal case. Ben Brafman withdrew from the case in January. Baez and Harvard University lawyer Ronald Sullivan took over the case. Sullivan withdrew last month.
Weinstein is accused of raping a woman in a New York hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman at his Manhattan apartment in 2006. Weinstein has denied all accusations of nonconsensual sex.
He faces five felony charges, including two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree, and one count each of first-degree rape and third-degree rape. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial is set to begin September 9