Harvey Weinstein lawyers argue he was denied fair trial in appeal of LA rape conviction

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers argue in an appeal that he did not get a fair trial when he was convicted of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles in 2022 and sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The brief filed Friday with California’s Second District Court of Appeal comes six weeks after his similar landmark #MeToo conviction and 23-year prison sentence in New York were overturned by the state's highest court.

The California appeal argues the trial judge wrongly excluded evidence that the Italian model and actor he was convicted of raping had a sexual relationship with the director of a film festival that had brought both Weinstein and the woman to Los Angeles at the time of the alleged attack.

Weinstein's lawyers argued that the judge deprived him of "his constitutional rights to present a defense and led to a miscarriage of justice.”