Harvey Weinstein's lawyer Benjamin Brafman quits

Harvey Weinstein's lawyer Benjamin Brafman has confirmed that he is quitting the producer's legal team.

Mr Brafman, 70, was reported to have been at odds with his mercurial client for several weeks.

On December 20 Mr Brafman failed to get the rape and sexual assault charges against Weinstein thrown out, and Weinstein was reportedly unhappy with his high-powered lawyer's approach to the case.

On Tuesday evening Mr Brafman said he was "withdrawing" from the case.

He made the announcement shortly after Esquire magazine published a 7,500-word profile of Mr Brafman, in which he claimed he could “take the abuse” from Weinstein.

“I’m generally pleased with the Esquire story," he told The New York Post.

"I obviously don’t get to write these stories so I’m not thrilled by every paragraph, but, on balance, I’m being told it’s a great piece.

“In terms of the timing, it is somewhat ironic that it appears online now when some of it deals with the Harvey Weinstein case, which I’m withdrawing from.”

Weinstein faces a trial later this year on five counts of sexual assault and rape, made by two women. He is accused of forcibly performing oral sex on production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006, and raping a longtime lover in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.

Weinstein denies all accusations.

Mr Brafman, whose previous clients include rappers Jay Z and Diddy, pharmaceutical tycoon Martin Shkreli and former head of the IMF Dominique Strauss-Khan, defended his decision to represent the disgraced film producer.

“I’m not the morality police,” he told the magazine. “I’m a criminal- defense lawyer.”

He insisted that Weinstein, who hired him when the accusations broke in the autumn of 2017, is the victim of mob-mentality.

“Nobody vets the allegations. What they do is count the bodies," he said. “When a person is vilified the way Harvey’s been, it’s time for a person like me to shine.”

Mr Brafman described Weinstein as "a genius" of the film industry.

But he gave a hint of the trouble that lay behind the scenes of their arrangement.

Mr Brafman said that Weinstein sends him dozens of emails a day, turns up unannounced at his office, and he leaves voice mails if he doesn’t hear back.

“He’s a hands-on client,” he said. “He’s relentless.”

He added: “He’s a nice guy, sometimes. I can say to him, ‘You can’t tell me to go to hell, because you need me.’

He then added, in what Esquire called "regrettable phrasing", the remark: “I take the abuse better than most.”