Closing arguments in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial concluded Wednesday with the protection staff claiming the previous mogul is being scapegoated because the face of the #MeToo motion.
“If this man wasn’t Harvey Weinstein, would we even be right here?” Weinstein legal professional Arthur Aidala requested the jury.
“It’s not as a result of the defendant is Harvey Weinstein, it’s as a result of he raped three folks,” Assistant District Legal professional Nicole Blumberg stated at the beginning of her summations.
Weinstein is being retried on a prison sexual cost and a rape cost associated to respective claims from a former manufacturing assistant on Venture Runway, Miriam Haley, who alleges he pressured oral intercourse on her at his Manhattan condo in 2006, in addition to from aspiring actress Jessica Mann, who alleges she was raped by Weinstein in 2013 in a Manhattan lodge. These costs had been a part of the 2020 trial, however Weinstein’s conviction was overturned in April 2024. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg stated he would retry the previous mogul shortly thereafter.
Former mannequin Kaja Sokola is the brand new accuser to this trial and has alleged Weinstein forcibly had oral intercourse together with her in a lodge in 2006, leading to one other prison sexual cost.
The #MeToo motion has been within the background of this trial, partially, as a result of witnesses referenced the 2017 New York Occasions article as the rationale they got here ahead. However this trial has additionally had much less fanfare and fewer protests than in 2020 and comes as some attitudes round #MeToo have been shifting. Plenty of ladies who say that they had additionally been sexually assaulted by Weinstein put ahead statements in assist of the three witnesses on this trial, however added that there’s now extra “cynicism” concerning the motion and that “MeToo has fallen underneath the ‘anti-woke’ hammer.”
Decide Curtis Farber is about to present charging directions to the 12-person jury Thursday morning, after which era they’ll start deliberations. This comes after about six weeks of testimony and greater than 20 witnesses from the prosecution in addition to just a few from the protection staff. If he’s discovered responsible on any of the costs, Weinstein will seemingly spend the remainder of his life in jail. However even when he’s not discovered responsible, Weinstein would stay in individual for his 2022 conviction in California. His authorized staff has appealed that conviction.
In his closing arguments, Aidala continued to place the encounters between Weinstein and the ladies as a part of consensual and transactional relationships that might assist them jumpstart their careers with out them having to endure formal schooling.
“They don’t wish to do the education, they wish to minimize the road,” Aidala stated. “They wish to take the shortcut. They usually suppose Harvey Weinstein’s the shortcut.”
Haley testified that Weinstein had helped her get the job on Venture Runway, and that she had continued to pitch him a few tv mission after the alleged incident. Weinstein had helped Sokola work as an additional on the Nanny Diaries (although her scene was minimize from the movie) and he obtained Mann an audition for Vampire Academy (although the casting director testified that she was too outdated for the half).
None of those initiatives obtained off the bottom or became careers, and Aidala posited that if that they had, the girl wouldn’t have taken half within the prison trial.
The alleged incident with Sokola occurred after Weinstein stated he had a script for Sokola to learn in his lodge room, and after Haley accepted an invite from Weinstein to attend the Clerks 2 premiere in Los Angeles and met him at his condo earlier than leaving. Mann, who testified she entered right into a consensual relationship with Weinstein at one level, however didn’t consent to the sexual encounter within the Manhattan lodge, initially noticed assembly with Weinstein as furthering her profession.
“He by no means had any curiosity of their careers. He had curiosity of their our bodies,” Blumberg stated.
Aidala additionally pointed to the truth that the three ladies had beforehand participated in a settlement fund for sexual assault claimants established after Weinstein’s firm went bankrupt, and obtained near $500,000 every.
“They couldn’t get what they needed when Harvey was on prime, in order that they found out a option to get what they needed when he was on the underside,” Aidala stated.
In his closing argument, and all through the trial, Aidala and the protection staff have sought to undermine the credibility of the three ladies’s testimony by declaring what they are saying are discrepancies of their tales. Moreover, the three ladies remained involved with Weinstein to a point after the alleged incident, with some reaching out on enterprise inquiries in heat messages, and with Mann persevering with to fulfill with Weinstein, per emails Aidala confirmed to the jury once more Tuesday.
Blumberg has countered that the ladies “knew it was obligatory to remain on his good facet.”
She additionally pointed to Weinstein’s energy inside the business, exhibiting pictures of the previous mogul with the Clintons and Michael Bloomberg, as causes for why the ladies had stayed involved and never instantly reported the alleged crimes.
“It’s not the one that’s sitting right here in courtroom at the moment, in a wheelchair, it’s that man who had affect over all of Hollywood,” Blumberg stated, in one of many first direct references to Weinstein’s well being throughout trial.
One of many massive points hanging over the retrial has been the Molineux rule, which led to the overturning of Weinsteins’ conviction when the courtroom of appeals dominated that the trial choose improperly allowed testimony from different ladies about uncharged allegations towards Weinstein.
On this trial, no ladies aside from the complaining witnesses testified about sexual assault from Weinstien, however the three ladies did point out different sexual encounters with Weinstein that weren’t charged within the case and that they stated had been undesirable. This included Sokola, who testified that Weinstein had touched her vagina and put her hand on his penis to masturbate when she was 16.
“It explains the character of the connection. It explains the facility dynamic that was happening,” Blumberg stated concerning the different encounters.
Along with heated again and forths between the 2 sides, Aidala exhibited a considerable amount of showmanship throughout his closing arguments, which included references to his personal intercourse life, imitations of the witnesses and a metaphor involving his grandmother’s pink sauce. Blumberg, in flip, started by saying “I’d prefer to avoid all of the jokes, and convey you again to actuality.”
A big picture of a youthful Weinstein and his then-partner Georgina Chapman was positioned in entrance of the witness field, going through the jury, with Aidala repeating his statements from opening arguments during which he admitted that Weinstein had repeatedly cheated on his spouse, however then stated: “There’s lots of actual property between immorality and criminality.”
Earlier than Blumberg’s summations continued Wednesday, Aidala had moved for one more mistrial, which he has been calling for a number of occasions throughout the previous a number of weeks.
“That is quantity 11,” Farber informed Aidala, denying the request, earlier than he then denied Aidala’s twelfth, thirteenth and 14th mistrial motions associated to the DA’s closing argument.