Harvey Weinstein heads back to court in retrial on sex crimes charges

(CNN) — When disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and a criminal sex act in 2020, the verdict was hailed as a groundbreaking victory for women around the world and a sign of progress in a cultural fight to stop workplace abuse of power.

The case that catalyzed the #MeToo movement is now back in the spotlight, one year after Weinstein’s conviction was overturned when the New York Court of Appeals ruled that testimony against him from women who were not part of the case led to an unfair trial.

For Weinstein, his retrial is another chance toward exoneration. For his accusers, the stakes feel higher amid a changed cultural and political climate in America in 2025.

“It’s painful, to go through the process again about a traumatic event,” attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing Mimi Haley, one of three women who will testify in Weinstein’s retrial, told CNN.

Haley, a former production assistant who worked on one of Weinstein’s television shows in the early 2000s, will testify against Weinstein for a second time after facing him in court at his first trial. Her testimony, along with that of former actress Jessica Mann, led to Weinstein’s conviction and a sentence of 23 years in prison before it was overturned. Both women agreed to testify once again, in hopes of securing justice.

“I commend her,” Allred said of her client. “It does take a tremendous amount of courage.”

Prosecutors have also added a new accuser in the retrial, after Weinstein was indicted by a grand jury earlier this year on an additional sex crimes charge. The new witness is a Jane Doe who alleges Weinstein assaulted her in a Manhattan hotel in 2006.

“She is one of the bravest, strongest women that I have ever had the pleasure of knowing,” Doe’s attorney, Lindsay Goldbrum of the law firm, Outten & Golden, told CNN.

“You can imagine that any individual who is going to testify against someone as powerful as Harvey Weinstein is going to be nervous. There’s going to be a certain level of anxiety,” Goldbrum said. “She is ready for her testimony. I believe her, the DA believes her, and I think the jury is going to as well.”

The retrial will focus on those three accusers, compared to six women who testified in the first trial.

“I think much of the public was aghast when this conviction was set aside,” Allred said, adding she disagreed with the court’s decision to exclude supporting witness testimony.

“The women who testified at the last criminal trial, they refuse to be ruled by fear,” Allred said, describing the women as “heroes” of the #MeToo movement.

Weinstein’s defense team has argued widespread media coverage of the #MeToo movement ahead of his first trial tainted the jury’s perception of him.

“It’s a much different vibe in the whole country,” Weinstein’s lead defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, who argued the appeal and defended the former movie producer in his 2020 trial, told CNN. “Now, there are other priorities in the country and in the world and I think that will put Mr. Weinstein in a much better position to get a fair trial in front of a fair jury.”

Weinstein’s first trial was a media firestorm. Demonstrators were regularly outside the lower Manhattan courthouse to protest Weinstein and draw attention to the #MeToo movement.

“There was an enormous amount of pressure on those jurors to find him guilty of something,” Aidala said.

“Hopefully the jurors will keep an open mind and listen to the facts in the courtroom and not what they’ve read or seen elsewhere,” he said. “Realistically, Mr. Weinstein and our legal team have an uphill battle – not because of the evidence. And it saddens me and troubles me to say it.”

Weinstein’s defense maintains he was convicted under societal pressure and not based the evidence. But the three women testifying all allege that they were sexually assaulted by Weinstein, who has been publicly accused of sexual abuse by more than 100 women.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and repeatedly denied that he ever raped or sexually assaulted anyone.

He has remained in custody at Rikers Island prison complex in New York while he appeals a separate 2022 conviction in Los Angeles, where he was found guilty on three sexual assault charges and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Weinstein, 73, underwent heart surgery earlier last year and has experienced poor living conditions in prison, according to his representatives.

“Harvey Weinstein’s health is rapidly deteriorating in custody and the conditions at Rikers are directly contributing to the decline,” Weinstein’s longtime spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told CNN, stating that his client is suffering from diabetes, tongue inflammation, mobility issues and his heart condition. “This is not just a matter of discomfort—it is a medical crisis. As his trial proceeds, the physical and emotional stress poses a serious threat to his health and even his life.”

Some of Weinstein accusers who have spoken with CNN since his New York conviction was overturned expressed concern about him potentially winning his appeals.

“The thought that he would be free again is terrifying,” Dawn Dunning, who testified for the prosecution in Weinstein’s 2020 trial but is not allowed to testify again, told CNN.

Whether or not Weinstein is convicted in the retrial, Allred said that progress for women in the workplace and in the justice system over the past decade is a direct result of his prosecution.

She added, “No matter what happens in this case, women are still going to be moving forward.”

The-CNN-Wire
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