Weinstein sued for alleged scheme to foil misconduct probe

SAN DIEGO – A lawyer who represented actress Paz de la Huerta has filed a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and a former New York prosecutor, alleging they coordinated in a scheme to get the actress to drop her sexual misconduct complaint against the movie mogul.

Aaron Filler’s firm, Tensor Law, filed the lawsuit Friday in Los Angeles against Weinstein, his company and attorney Michael Rubin.

Filler said in the lawsuit that Rubin persuaded de la Huerta to drop Filler as her attorney, and also encouraged her to drop the complaint alleging Weinstein raped her.

In the lawsuit, Filler said Rubin misrepresented himself to de la Huerta as a victims’ rights advocate, but actually was acting for the benefit of Weinstein “to interfere by a series of harmful subterfuges, threats, and extortion demands, entirely outside the legitimate strictures of the legal system.”

Rubin denied the allegations and said that Filler is upset he lost a client.

“I never met Harvey Weinstein in my life,” he said.

Rubin said his intentions in reaching out to the actress were to help de la Huerta get Weinstein arrested.

Weinstein spokeswoman Holly Baird said in an email to the Associated Press on Saturday that it’s “insanity” to suggest that Weinstein “had any involvement.”