It has been reported (via The Daily Beast) that Harvey Weinstein’s legal “dream team” lost yet another lawyer on Thursday when attorney Jose Baez withdrew his participation from the case. It is being reported that Baez was clashing over legal tactics with Weinstein.
The Daily Beast additionally states that Harvard law professor Ronald Sullivan had also dropped from the case “following backlash at Harvard regarding his role in the proceedings.”
The problem, it seems, doesn’t necessarily have to do with the case being unwinnable, actually it’s quite the contrary: “I give him a great chance of getting off,” a person close to the case tells DB. “The charges are flimsy. It’s a weak, weak case. The only way he will lose this case is if the lawyers fall on their head and forget where the courthouse is.”
This consistent rearrangement of lawyers by Weinstein has more to do with the ex-Miramax honcho’s temper: “He’s impossible to work with. Ben wants to do everything in the courtroom and that’s the opposite of Weinstein, who wants the case tried in the court of public opinion and not a court of law,” a source told DB. adding “It’s pointless. It’s counterintuitive” to do such a thing.
The 67-year-old Weinstein is charged with raping a woman in 2013 and sexual assaulting another in 2016. He denies the allegations.
Baez’ letter to a judge:
“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,” Baez wrote.
A few noteworthy quotes:
“He thinks he is producing a movie. It’s pathetic and comical all in one. All the other female attorneys turned him down,”
“He thinks it makes him look less creepy to have a female lawyer represent him. I think he needs the best lawyer not window dressing.”
Quentin Tarantino doesn't usually put modern-day filmmakers on his level. That’s just how he is. David Fincher seems to be the one exception.