Weinstein lawyer says ‘loving emails’ are key to disgraced mogul’s defense

NEW YORK — Defense lawyers want to use a trove of intimate email correspondence between Harvey Weinstein and his accusers to try to convince a jury that any contact was consensual, one of the attorneys says today on the eve of opening statements in Weinstein’s rape trial in New York City.

The defense has “dozens and dozens and dozens of loving emails to Mr. Weinstein” it wants to use to discredit witnesses, attorney Damon Cheronis tells a Manhattan judge.

Some of the same women who claim they were victimized by the disgraced movie mogul “also bragged about being in a sexual relationship with him,” he says.

The request comes during last-minute arguments over how the emails could be used once a jury of seven men and five women starts hearing the case Wednesday.

Judge James Burke bars the defense from using the actual emails in a presentation planned for opening statements but permits referring to their “substance and content.”

— AP