OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
4:49 PM – Thursday, February 26, 2026
Disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein has significantly overhauled his legal defense team ahead of his third New York rape trial, enlisting a trio of high-profile attorneys known for representing defendants like Luigi Mangione and Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Court papers filed on Tuesday confirmed that lawyers Jacob Kaplan, Marc Agnifilo, and Teny Geragos have taken over lead defense duties. Analysts say the transition to the new counsel is not just a change in personnel, but a calculated pivot toward a team currently operating at the nexus of the American legal zeitgeist.
Kaplan and Agnifilo are currently defending 27-year-old Luigi Mangione, the suspected shooter in the 2024 UnitedHealthcare CEO murder case, and Agnifilo and Geragos also recently represented disgraced rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, securing a split verdict that included acquittals on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
The movie mogul’s legal shake-up comes after Weinstein, 73, declined to resolve his case through a guilty plea, opting instead for a “recalibrated outlook and strategic approach,” according to his spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer.
The new trio replaces Weinstein’s longtime advocate Arthur Aidala, who spearheaded the successful 2024 appeal that overturned Weinstein’s original 2020 conviction. Aidala will remain on the team but will shift his focus exclusively to appellate work and pending civil matters, ceding the courtroom floor for the upcoming trial.
“Harvey believes that, after two prior trials on this matter, a recalibrated outlook and strategic approach offers the most effective path forward,” Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said.
In the 2020 New York trial, a jury convicted Weinstein of a first-degree criminal sexual act against accuser Miriam Haley. However, he was acquitted of the most serious charges of predatory sexual assault involving a second accuser and the jury deadlocked on a charge of third-degree rape involving a third woman.
The upcoming trial will center on the unresolved charge that Weinstein raped hairstylist and then-aspiring actress Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.
Mann’s testimony included earlier incidents where Weinstein allegedly performed unwanted oral sex on her, and the 2013 incident involved forced oral acts as part of or following the rape. However, the unresolved charge in the upcoming third trial is not for unwanted oral sex — it’s the rape charge that deadlocked in the June 2025 retrial, leading to the mistrial on that count.
While the charge of third-degree rape carries a maximum sentence of four years — a duration Weinstein has largely already served in the New York system — a conviction could still impact his overall legal standing and his separate 16-year sentence in California, which is currently under appeal.
The new defense team brings deep familiarity with the case’s history, as Jacob Kaplan was a member of Weinstein’s original 2018 defense team, providing him with institutional knowledge of the prosecution’s long-running strategy.
The trial, originally slated to begin on March 3, 2026, has been postponed to an unspecified date to allow the new counsel to prepare. A status conference remains scheduled for March 4th.
However, the schedules of the new attorneys may cause further delays, since Kaplan and Agnifilo are currently managing Mangione’s state trial, set to begin June 8th, as well as the sex trafficking trial of the Alexander brothers.
Despite Weinstein’s pleas, Judge Curtis Farber, who will preside over the third trial, rejected claims that previous proceedings were unfair, telling the defendant, “You had a fair trial.”
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
What do YOU think? Click here to jump to the comments!
Sponsored Content Below
