Harvey Weinstein is bringing in the lawyers who defended Luigi Mangione and Sean "Diddy" Combs to fight his third New York rape trial, replacing his longtime attorney in the courtroom after declining a guilty plea.
Jacob Kaplan, Marc Agnifilo, and Teny Geragos, all partners at the Manhattan firm Agnifilo Intrater, confirmed the move in court papers Tuesday. Arthur Aidala, who has represented the disgraced producer through two prior trials, ceded his courtroom role to focus on appeals and pending civil matters, the NY Post reported.
Weinstein is due in court March 4 for a status conference. The trial itself was postponed from a March 3 start and has not been rescheduled.
The new defense roster reads like a who's who of Manhattan criminal defense in the current moment. Kaplan and Agnifilo are representing Mangione in parallel state and federal cases stemming from the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. In those proceedings, the pair succeeded in getting terrorism charges thrown out in the state case and the death penalty barred in the federal case. Mangione's state trial is slated to begin June 8.
Agnifilo and Geragos, meanwhile, represented Combs and secured a split verdict last June, winning acquittals on sex trafficking and racketeering charges. The two are also currently among the lawyers defending wealthy brothers Alon, Oren, and Tal Alexander at their sex trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court.
Kaplan is no stranger to Weinstein's case. He was a member of the producer's original defense team back in 2018 and is expected to take a leading role in the upcoming trial.
Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer framed the change as strategic rather than personal:
"Harvey believes that, after two prior trials on this matter, a recalibrated outlook and strategic approach offers the most effective path forward."
Aidala, for his part, said the decision was mutual and amicable. He signaled that his focus now turns to the appellate courts:
"We will continue to advocate forcefully on his behalf in the appellate courts, where we are confident that serious legal errors will be addressed and his most significant conviction will ultimately be overturned."
This third trial exists because the first two failed to produce a clean result on one of the central charges.
At his first trial in 2020, Weinstein was convicted of raping hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013 and of forcing oral sex on Miriam Haley. He has been behind bars since that initial conviction, nearly six years now. But New York's highest court overturned those convictions, ruling that Weinstein was prejudiced by testimony about allegations that were not part of the case. A retrial was ordered.
That retrial, which concluded last June, produced a split verdict. The jury convicted Weinstein of a first-degree criminal sex act involving Haley, acquitted him of forcibly performing oral sex on Kaja Sokola, and never reached a decision on the rape charge involving Mann. Deliberations collapsed when the foreperson refused to participate further.
The unresolved Mann charge is punishable by up to four years in prison. The Haley conviction carries up to 25 years. Judge Curtis Farber, who oversaw the retrial and will also preside over the third trial, rejected arguments from Weinstein's team that the verdict was tainted by infighting and bullying among jurors.
At a hearing in January, Weinstein told the court his "spirit was breaking" and maintained he "never assaulted anyone." Farber was unmoved. "You had a fair trial."
The decision to swap legal teams after two trials tells you something about where Weinstein's head is. He turned down a guilty plea. He fired his courtroom lawyer. He brought in attorneys who have demonstrated, in real time and in the same city, that they can win acquittals in cases the public has already decided.
That last point matters. The Combs verdict stunned observers who assumed a conviction was inevitable. The Mangione defense has already stripped prosecutors of their most aggressive charges before the trial even begins. Whether you admire these attorneys or not, their recent track record is the kind of thing a defendant facing his third trial on the same charge would find very appealing.
Prosecutors have said the trial could take up to five weeks. With no new date set, both sides now enter a period of preparation that could reshape the contours of the case entirely.
Weinstein is gambling that fresh eyes and a proven roster can accomplish what six years of litigation have not. For a man who built an empire on reading rooms and placing bets, it may be the most consequential casting decision he has left.