Harvey Weinstein has no shot at a fair trial in his NYC criminal case due to a tainted jury pool ... so says his defense team, which is laying blame squarely on the judge.
Weinstein's lead attorney, Donna Rotunno, tells TMZ … the disgraced Hollywood mogul has had such an immense amount of negative press coverage, she doesn't think it will be possible to find impartial jurors.
They're on the 6th day of jury selection right now, but Rotunno says all the potential candidates have likely formed opinions about Weinstein's guilt already ... due to what happened on day one.
As we reported ... Weinstein was hit with new sex crime charges in L.A. last week -- on the same day his NY trial started. His lawyers say because of the timing, the NY judge should have adjourned the case for a "cooling off period" -- a month or so -- to allow the news cycle to die down.
That didn't happen -- the judge immediately shot down their motion to adjourn, saying the L.A. charges were "next to meaningless" to the NY criminal case. As a result, Rotunno says the L.A. case is too fresh on the minds of the NY jury pool.
Rotunno tells us the judge's inaction will absolutely be included in an appeal IF Weinstein is convicted.
As for the jury selection ... Rotunno says they will be asking the jury pool if the announcement of the L.A. charges will influence opinions of Weinstein.
We know Gigi Hadid is one potential juror who really wants to serve and claims she can keep an open mind. Still, it seems unlikely she'll make the cut.