Crime
Harvey Weinstein Hires Luigi Mangione and Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Lawyers Ahead Of Latest Trial
Harvey Weinstein has turned to the lawyers who represented Luigi Mangione and Sean “Diddy” Combs after shaking up his legal team.
The trio of lawyers, Jacob Kaplan, Marc Agnifilo and Teny Geragos, confirmed in court papers filed on Tuesday February 24, that they will be in charge of Weinstein’s defense at his third New York rape trial, the New York Post reported on Wednesday, February 25. Kaplan, who was a member of Weinstein’s original defense team in 2018, is expected to take the lead, per the outlet.
The case centers around a charge that the Oscar winning-producer raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013. Weinstein was convicted of that crime, as well as forcing oral sex on another woman, in 2020, but those convictions were overturned, per The New York Times.
A retrial last year resulted in a split verdict, in which he was convicted of the oral sex charge, for which he now faces 25 years in prison. But because of jury issues, the case ended in mistrial before the rape charge involving Mann was decided.
The 73-year-old insisted he “never assaulted anyone” at a previous hearing in January, according to the New York Post. He went on to add that his resolve was “breaking” after nearly six years behind bars.
The new trial was due to start March 3, but has been delayed until an unspecified date.
Kaplan and Agnifilo are representing Mangione, who is accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in 2024, in his New York, Pennsylvania and federal cases. They have already succeeded in getting charges that could have made him eligible for the death penalty dropped. His trial is set to begin in New York on June 8.
Agnifilo and Geragos were Combs’ lawyers in his 2025 trial, in which he was convicted of transportation for the purposes of prostitution, but acquitted on more serious sex trafficking and racketeering charges. They are also on the defense team for accused sex traffickers Alon, Oren and Tal Alexander, who are currently on trial in Manhattan federal court.
In 2023, Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison in a separate California case that he is appealing. If convicted in the third-degree rape charge involving Mann, Weinstein faces an additional four years behind bars.
