Disgraced former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has had his sexual assault lawsuit filed in New York.
The New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, agreed Wednesday to hear his appeal of his 2020 Manhattan sex crime conviction.
Weinstein, 70, was sentenced to 23 years after a landmark trial during the #MeToo movement that found him guilty of felony sexual assault and third-degree rape.
Harvey Weinstein arrives at the State Supreme Court in New York, February 24, 2020.
Bloomberg via Getty Images, FILE
He argued that certain testimony admitted at trial was improper and that a juror who had written a novel about “predatory grown men” should have been disqualified.
Weinstein’s lawyers have until Oct. 18 to file a written request with the court to begin the appeal, the filing shows.
The Appellate Division’s First Division previously upheld Weinstein’s conviction, but outgoing Chief Justice Janet DiFiore granted Weinstein’s request for leave to appeal.
In a statement provided to ABC News, Harvey Weinstein said: “I am innocent of these charges and I am so grateful to my lawyers for working hard and smart on this. Their hard work will help me prove my innocence in the end. I look forward to this opportunity to be heard by the New York Court of Appeals.”
A spokesperson for Weinstein said in a statement to ABC News that the court’s decision “demonstrates that there is, in fact, grounds for appeal. There were many mistakes in the trial and the verdict and Harvey’s lawyers will do whatever it takes to prove his innocence of the charges.
There was no immediate comment from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the charges against Weinstein.
The sentence includes 20 years in prison for first-degree criminal sexual assault stemming from an allegation by former “Project Runway” production assistant Mimi Haley. It also includes three years for third-degree rape stemming from an allegation by Jessica Mann.
Weinstein faced a minimum of probation and a maximum of four years in prison for the rape conviction and between five and 25 years for the felony sexual assault conviction.
He was found not guilty in that trial of the more serious charges of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape.
Weinstein is currently in jail in Los Angeles, awaiting trial there on sex crime charges. He faces four counts of sexual assault for allegedly assaulting two women in separate incidents in February 2013 within a day of each other.