Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer: Hey, Big Harv didn’t invent the casting couch, you know

I guess this is one of those things where the PR guy is going to be horrified at what the lawyer decides to say, but the lawyer doesn’t care. His job is to get the guy off, not to help him win popularity contests or win him good press, and I imagine we all recognize Weinstein’s beyond that at this point anyway.

The lawyer’s name is Ben Brafman, and he doesn’t even make a pretense of defending the casting couch or Weinstein’s habit of indulging in it. It’s pretty much a down-the-line legal, technical argument – that it doesn’t matter how bad the thing he did was, as long as Brafman can successfully argue it didn’t break the law. Brafman’s right, of course, that this is his one and only job. I’d be rather surprised if he can pull it off considering the likely testimony of multiple witnesses who are going to accuse him of rape, and will surely offer compelling testimony in support of their claims. Back that up by what will surely be a jury’s already established distaste for Weinstein – however much they will insist they can be objective – and I’m not entirely sure what the defense strategy might be. I guess your best bet is to say that giving into professional pressure for sex as a quid pro quo is not precisely rape, because you did consent, even though you didn’t like it and felt horrible about it. But some of the accusations are more of the straight-rape variety (“rape rape” as Whoopi Goldberg might say), and don’t involve even compelled consent. When your own lawyer isn’t prepared to defend you against the charge that you’re a degenerate lowlife, I guess technicalities are all you’ve got left.

"Weinstein did not invent the casting couch in Hollywood, to the extent that there is bad behavior in that industry... Bad behavior is not on trial in this case. It is only if you intentionally committed a criminal act & Weinstein vigorously denies that," Weinstein's lawyer says pic.twitter.com/OrWie5sP5z

— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 25, 2018

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