Yet Another Harvey Weinstein Lawyer Drops Him as a Client
Harvey Weinstein is having a hell of a time finding legal counsel for his big sex offender trial. A third lawyer representing the disgraced producer, Jose Baez, is planning to leave his defense team, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Baez was hired in January after Weinstein’s first attorney, Benjamin Brafman, asked to be relieved as the former Hollywood titan’s counsel after the two began to wrestle over how to handle both the legal and public relations crises faced by Weinstein.
A source with knowledge of Weinstien’s thinking told The Times that Baez started to backpedal last month after his co-counsel, Harvard law professor Ronald Sullivan, recused himself from the case. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss Weinstein’s legal situation candidly.
While I think the “threat” of whiny college kids is extremely overblown, I thought it was really messed up that Harvard removed Sullivan as a Faculty Dean because students were mad about him taking a position on Weinstein’s defense team. Regardless of what Weinstein has done, he’s entitled to a full and vigorous defense and this principle of American justice extends back to future President John Adams defending the Red Coats who carried out the Boston Massacre when no one else was willing to. Sullivan and his wife made a statement about the situation on YouTube just a few days ago.
In a statement, a representative for Weinstein also said Sullivan’s departure may have prompted Baez’s request to step down.
“When one of the team members left the case due to the personal pressures that were placed on him, it removed a critical component to the team and legal strategy, which was not yet being filled,” the statement read. “Mr. Weinstein will shortly be welcoming a team that will fulfill each of the essential components needed to properly serve his due process and his rigorous defense.”
I would also not be surprised to find out Weinstein is a terrible client. You know the story about how Hayao Miyazaki sent him a katana and a note that said “no cuts” when Weinstein licensed Princess Mononoke? Weinstein is famous is famous for thinking he knows better than everyone, and I’m sure he’s like that with his legal team, which is about the least-helpful thing you can do for your own defense.
He’s entitled to a defense just as someone, like young women, paying top dollars for an education is entitled to not want a professor that supports (because he deffends) the use of a possition of power to pressure young women into sex, and plain rape when that doesn’t work, RIGHT?
The right to counsel is specifically enumerated in the constitution. Students’ right to protest certainly is as well, but the idea that a defense attorney “supports” the alleged criminal acts of his client is grossly misinformed at best and I would go as far to say an affront to American values and an assault on the very concept of justice.