Not to be outdone by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, attorneys for embattled director Roman Polanski have served up another Hitler analogy to help close out Passover week.
In a 13-page filing asking a judge to reconsider the threat of jail time should Polanski return to the United States, attorneys decried the U.S. legal system as having attempted to deceive or entrap Polanski for four decades, and even compared the court to Nazis.
“Mr. Polanski was as justified in fleeing this Court’s illegal conduct as he was to flee the Germans who invaded Poland,” said documents obtained by TheWrap.
Polankski fled the Kraków Ghetto in 1943 upon the invasion of German soldiers, according to his biographer Christopher Sandford. The events became the backdrop of his film “The Pianist,” which took three Academy Awards including Best Director for Polanski.
In early April, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Scott Brown delivered the setback to which attorneys just responded.
The Best Director Oscar-winner (“The Pianist”) was indicted in 1977 on five charges, including “rape by use of drugs” and “furnishing a controlled substance to a minor,” after having sex with 13-year-old girl who had been brought over to his house for a photo shoot.
Polanski later reached a deal, pleading guilty to the lesser charge of “unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.” As a condition of the deal, he was required to serve 90 days in state prison while undergoing psychiatric evaluation. He was released after only 42 days, but soon after fled the United States when it emerged that the presiding judge was considering a stiffer penalty.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.