(JTA) — Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz is helping Harvey Weinstein’s legal team, according to court documents.
Weinstein, a Jewish movie mogul who is currently being investigated by law enforcement authorities over allegations of sexual misconduct, is fighting with Dershowitz’s help to obtain emails that Weinstein says would “exonerate” him, according to an article Friday in the Hollywood Reporter, which the magazine says are based on court documents.
On Thursday, Weinstein continued his bid in Delaware Bankruptcy Court to obtain personal and business records kept by The Weinstein Co. – a firm which he helped set up but which dismissed him in October following multiple complaints about his alleged sexual exploitation of women. The company has declared bankruptcy and its assets have been put on sale.
But Harvey Weinstein is seeking to obtain emails from the company before it is sold and possibly dissolved, according to the Report. Dershowitz, who had counseled O. J. Simpson in the 1990s in a criminal murder trial from which the football player was acquitted, said he has agreed to help Weinstein with this issue.
“I have been retained to consult with Benjamin Brafman, Esquire who is representing Harvey Weinstein,” Dershowitz states in a declaration submitted to Delaware Bankruptcy Court. “I have agreed to consult on the specific issue of Mr. Brafman’s access to his client’s personal and business emails.”
Last month, Weinstein filed a motion requesting access to the files because their contents will allow him to “exonerate himself,” he told the court.
