Geraldo Rivera Praises Bill Cosby’s Release, Says Harvey Weinstein ‘Unjustly Convicted’ (Video)

Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera said Wednesday that he supported Bill Cosby’s release from prison, decrying what he called the “mob justice” of the comedian’s 2018 conviction on sexual assault charges.

While many expressed outrage at Cosby’s release and the overturning of his conviction, Rivera said that the comic’s prosecution “never should have happened” and asked: “How is he going to get back the two years that he has lost now?” He also suggested that Harvey Weinstein was “unjustly convicted” and that the disgraced mogul might find similar recourse in appealing his own 2020 conviction on rape charges in New York.

John Roberts, who was anchoring “America Reports” at the time of Rivera’s comments, responded, “You say, ‘How is he going to get back the two years that he has lost while being in prison?’ How will the 58 women who say he did to them what they say he did ever get back any sense of justice here, and any sense of ever being whole again?”

Rivera replied by shifting the burden to the accusers. “Our hearts go out to these victims — they should have gone to the prosecutor when their cases were ripe for justice,” he said. “I am sorry they are not getting a sense of moral fulfillment now, or rehabilitation or repair, for the damage that this man probably did to them. But that’s not the way the criminal justice system works.”

Rivera moved on to predict that the overturning of Cosby’s conviction by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would set a precedent for Weinstein to challenge his own conviction even as he awaits trial in L.A. on additional sexual assault charges: “You can spit on him, do all you want, but he was unjustly convicted in my opinion.”

Cosby’s case is one of the most high profile of the #MeToo era. He was convicted in 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, at his home in 2004. Though the case involves just one woman, at least 60 women have come forward to accuse the former entertainer of sexual assault.

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that District Attorney Kevin Steele, who arrested Cosby in 2015, was obligated to stand by his predecessor’s promise not to charge Cosby with any crimes when the comedian agreed to give potentially incriminating testimony in Constand’s civil case. The court overturned Cosby’s conviction and ruled that he cannot be retried on the same charges.

Watch above, via Fox News.