“I don’t need this to sound bizarre, however I did assume that Donna wanted any individual out right here that she might absolutely belief,” Cheronis stated about becoming a member of this specific group. “She wanted any individual from Chicago.” I requested him whether or not he thought the trial would change his profession. “I’d be mendacity if I stated I haven’t considered it,” he stated.
Nonetheless, there have been moments when he and Rotunno thought of turning Weinstein down: They anxious about their households, lacking work in Chicago, and media consideration. (“Look what they did to poor Marcia Clark,” Rotunno stated throughout one in every of our interviews.)
They got here closest to pulling out throughout monetary negotiations—a difficulty Baez additionally cited in his request to stop. At one level throughout our dialog, Aidala imagined how the identical trial would play out for a hypothetical “Harvey Jones.“
I requested if this protection group would care a couple of Harvey Jones.
“If Harvey Jones can afford it,” Rotunno replied shortly.
Weinstein’s attorneys talk with him each day, usually many instances a day, simply as their predecessors did. “It’s a must to keep in mind, that is actually all Harvey has to deal with proper now,” stated Rotunno. “I believe he appears at this as a possibility to be concerned in a venture.”
Aidala stated their consumer has at instances pushed them to do issues that you just simply cannot: “Like, ‘Oh, let’s introduce this into proof. Let’s introduce that into proof.’” He’ll suggest witnesses he thinks will bolster his normal picture. “He’s a grasp of doing that within the court docket of public opinion,” Aidala stated. “He is aware of easy methods to have the precise folks step up and say the precise factor on the proper time. That’s not how a trial works.” Who did he need to get up for him?
“You identify it!” cried Aidala.
Earlier than I might, Rotunno modified the topic to Weinstein’s charitable giving.
Weinstein denies assaulting these accusing him in court docket, and has categorically denied all allegations of nonconsensual sexual contact. His protection at trial will likely be that the intercourse was consensual. “I believe it’s straightforward to look again and say, ‘Oh, you realize, perhaps I didn’t love that have,’” stated Rotunno. “Properly, okay. Remorse intercourse will not be rape.” Quite a lot of girls have stated they explicitly rejected and bodily resisted Weinstein, together with at the least two who’re anticipated to testify at trial. “I stated, ‘no, no, no,’ however he insisted,” stated Haleyi when she got here ahead publicly in 2017.
On the press convention the place she went public Haleyi sat subsequent to Gloria Allred at a desk lined with microphones. She met Weinstein in 2004, she stated, then bumped into him once more in 2006. He gave her a job as a manufacturing assistant. For the sake of her profession, she stated, she met with Weinstein a number of instances and navigated varied ranges of sexual peril: She fled a lodge room, attended a innocent dinner, rejected a visit to Paris, and finally accepted an invite to his SoHo residence. She stated he backed her right into a bed room, held her down, forcibly carried out oral intercourse, eliminated her tampon—she was menstruating and located the act horrifying—handed her a tampon after which rolled over and stated, “Don’t you assume we’re a lot nearer to one another now?” She stated she replied, “No.”
The unnamed sufferer, referred to as CW-1 in court docket information, says Weinstein compelled penetrative intercourse on her in opposition to her will in a DoubleTree lodge room in Manhattan in March 2013. The prosecution, led by cold-case veteran Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, has not provided many particulars, and the state of New York limits prosecutors’ communication with the press. The prosecution and the protection have every accused the opposite of manipulating the media: In November, Illuzzi-Orbon sought a gag order to cease the protection from “making an attempt to sway the jury pool earlier than jury choice.” After Decide Burke rejected the request, Rotunno accused the district lawyer of making an attempt “to silence the opposition.”