Harvey Weinstein's lawyers begin 'lengthy effort' to overturn his rape conviction

More than a year after being sentenced to over 20 years behind bars, disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein is looking to get a new trial.

Weinstein's lawyers on Monday filed an appeal of his 2020 conviction on charges of rape and sexual assault, claiming he "did not receive a fair trial" and requesting a new one, The Wall Street Journal reports. Among the arguments they raised was that the judge in the trial shouldn't have allowed four women to testify against Weinstein when he had not been criminally charged over the alleged incidents they described.

"Simply put, the prosecution tried Weinstein's character not his conduct," the lawyers argued in the appeal, per The New York Times.

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Weinstein's attorneys also argued that the judge should have removed one of the jurors who wrote a novel about "predatory older men" for allegedly being biased, according to the Los Angeles Times. They additionally claimed the judge improperly didn't allow the defense to call certain witnesses for testimony, including one to rebut testimony that women "do not falsely report rape and that their memories of rape do not fade over time," per the Journal.

This appeal was the "beginning of what is likely to be a lengthy effort" on the part of Weinstein's attorneys to overturn his conviction, the Times wrote. Trial lawyer Paul Weiss told the Times, though, that it's "hard to imagine, particularly on the facts of this case, a court wanting to be seen as unwinding the hard-fought progress of the Me Too movement."

Meanwhile, as Weinstein's lawyers attempt to appeal his conviction in New York, he's also facing charges in Los Angeles, and according to Variety, he's currently awaiting extradition.