Cross-examination focuses on Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann's long 'relationship' with movie mogul

Yahoo

21-05-2025

Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann faced an array of questions in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday on how long she kept up her 'relationship' with the disgraced Hollywood studio boss even after she said he raped her.
In an hours-long, often contentious cross-examination session, Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala pressed Mann on her years of communications and sexual encounters with Weinstein between 2013 and 2017, and questioned the timeline of her alleged rape in March 2013 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Midtown.
'You communicated with him and you saw him throughout the rest of that year?' Aidala asked, with Mann admitting, as she had during her direct testimony, that they'd e-mailed and called each other.
'The first time you were sexually intimate with Mr. Weinstein is 2013, and the last time you mentioned you were sexually intimate was 2016, correct?' he asked, and Mann responded, 'I would like to define sexually intimate, because it's different, but yes, there were encounters.'
It's the third day of testimony by Mann, who who has accused Weinstein of raping her in a room at the DoubleTree Hotel on March 18, 2023, and again in a Beverly Hills hotel months later. Weinstein doesn't face criminal charges in the alleged Beverly Hills assault.
Mann also took the stand in Weinstein's 2020 trial, but the ex-producer's guilty verdict and 23-year prison sentence was overturned by the state's highest court last year. The retrial, which is in its fifth week, also featured days of testimony from two other accusers, former TV production assistant Miriam Haley — who also took the stand in 2020 — and Polish model and aspiring actress Kaja Sokola.
Aidala tried to cast doubt on Mann's telling of the DoubleTree attack, which she said happened as soon as they entered a hotel room Weinstein had booked.
Mann noticed a needle in the bathroom trash afterwards, and when she looked up the medication, which had the word 'necro' in its name, she learned used to restore function to his 'dead penis,' she testified.
Aidala questioned her further on that, asking if she also learned 'that it could take 20 minutes to take effect.'
Mann was vacationing in New York with her roommate, Talita Maia, and an agent friend, Thomas Richards, and Aidala pointed out that they all had a meal with Weinsteins hours after the alleged attack.
'You were hoping that showing Thomas Richards you had personal access to Mr. Weinstein was going to help with your career?' Aidala asked, and she responded, 'I'll speak for myself — that is not the case.'
Aidala spent much of his cross-examination having Mann read years worth of complimentary, friendly and flattering emails she wrote to Weinstein, including one where she wrote, 'You have mastered storytelling and continually are outdoing yourself and the competition. You are the best. Miss you big guy.'
He also played a recording of Mann speaking to a relationship coach because her boyfriend in 2013 and 2014, an actor named Eddie, didn't approve of her interactions with Weinstein.
'I happen to have a very powerful friend, and I finally feel good about telling Eddie how the history went down with him,' she said, adding that Weinstein could 'facilitate the process so much more easily for me,' if, say, she has a script she wants to se made into a film.
'That's like taking care of me…. If I want to take myself seriously, I'm taking care of me,' she can be heard saying.
Aidala also suggested Mann made the allegations to get paid, since she got about $475,000 from a victim settlement fund.
'You testified at trial that you struggled financially for your adult life. You lived in your car for a while. Your clothing was in a cardboard box… and now you have hundreds of thousands of dollars, correct?'
When Aidala asked, 'Now you're rich, right?' Mann responded, 'That's a subjective term, but I am grateful.'