Federal prosecutors are looking into possible charges for wire fraud and other crimes Harvey Weinstein may have committed on top of the state charges he is already facing, according to a Thursday Wall Street Journal report.
The possible federal charges would be related to the state ones — which include rape and predatory sexual assault — as they deal with Weinstein’s alleged attempts to silence his accusers, involving working with the Israeli firm Black Cube to obtain damaging information on them.
Weinstein’s lawyer told the Wall Street Journal that the movie executive hired Black Cube to “defend himself through legal action from serious and patently false allegations.”
Per the Wall Street Journal, the federal prosecutors’ case could be used as a backup for the state one since the crimes Weinstein has been accused of (and pleaded not guilty to) are notoriously difficult to prove in court.
Weinstein is currently out on $1 million bail and is expected back in court for the state case on September 20.
I’m not sure what the “wire fraud” would be in a case like this, but as usual we have to wait for the indictment (if there is one). Perhaps they want to federalize state witness tampering on some kind of “deprivation of honest services” type claim.
Seems kind of odd, but most things do these days. If he’s trying to intimidate witnesses I hope they do find some way to charge hime.
How about doing the same for the Groper-in-Chief?
Wire fraud for payoffs made … just like with Cohen and tRump