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The attorney, Jose Baez, asked a Manhattan
justice to let him off the case six months after Weinstein, 67,
hired him because of their strained relationship, the newspaper
reported on Monday.
"Mr. Weinstein has engaged in behavior that makes this
representation unreasonably difficult to carry out effectively
and has insisted upon taking actions with which I have
fundamental disagreements," Baez wrote to Manhattan Supreme
Court Justice James Burke last week, according to the newspaper.
Baez did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for
comment.
Prosecutors in New York accuse Weinstein, 67, of forcibly
performing oral sex on a woman in 2006 and raping another woman
in 2013. Weinstein faces five criminal charges, including rape,
and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. The trial is scheduled
to begin on Sept. 9.
More than 70 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
He has denied all accusations and said any sexual contact was
consensual.
Weinstein hired Baez and Harvard University law professor Ron
Sullivan after his former attorney Ben Brafman left the case in
January. Sullivan left the case last month after his defense of
Weinstein sparked an outcry at Harvard and led to his dismissal
from a dean role.
Baez previously represented Casey Anthony, a Florida woman found
not guilty in 2011 of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee
in a high-profile criminal case.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Will Dunham)
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