Weinstein retrial nears end as lawyers argue: sexual predator or #MeToo 'poster boy'?

Associated Press

2 days ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein 's lawyer portrayed him as the falsely accused 'original sinner' of the #MeToo era, while a prosecutor told jurors at his sex crimes retrial Tuesday that the former movie mogul preyed on less-powerful women he thought would never speak up.
The two sides took very different tones in their closing arguments, which are due to conclude Wednesday. Weinstein's lawyer, Arthur Aidala, veered into folksy jokes and theatricality — sometimes re-enacting witnesses' behavior — as he contended that his client engaged in a 'courting game,' not crimes. Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg, as direct as Aidala was discursive, urged jurors to focus on Weinstein's accusers and their days of grueling testimony.
'This was not a 'courting game,' as Mr. Aidala wants you to believe. This was not a 'transaction,'' she told jurors. 'This was never about 'fooling around.' It was about rape.'
The majority-female jury is expected to start deliberations at some point Wednesday, inheriting a case that was seen as a #MeToo watershed when Weinstein was convicted five years ago. It ended up being retried, and reshaped, because an appeals court overturned the 2020 verdict.
Weinstein, the former Hollywood honcho-turned-#MeToo outcast, has pleaded not guilty to raping a woman in 2013 and forcing oral sex on two others, separately, in 2006.
Aidala argued that everything that happened between the ex-producer and his accusers was a consensual, if 'transactional,' exchange of favors. The attorney accused prosecutors of 'trying to police the bedroom' and zeroing in on the man seen as 'the poster boy, the original sinner, for the #MeToo movement.'
'They tried to do it five years ago, and now there's a redo, and they're trying to do it again,' he told jurors. His hours-long summation touched on matters from the acclaimed, Weinstein-co-produced 1994 film 'Pulp Fiction' to his own marriage and his grandmother's Italian gravy, at times playing for — and getting — laughs from jurors and Weinstein.
Aidala depicted the former studio boss as a self-made New Yorker, while painting Weinstein's accusers as troubled and canny 'women with broken dreams' who plied him for movie opportunities and other perks, kept engaging with him for years and then turned on him to cash in on his #MeToo undoing. All three received compensation through legal processes separate from the criminal trial.
Blumberg countered that Weinstein interpreted a sexual 'no' as a cue to 'push a little bit more, and if they still say no, just take it anyway.'
She argued that his accusers stayed in friendly contact with Weinstein because they were trying to work in entertainment, and they feared their careers would be squashed if they crossed him.
'He chose people who he thought would be the perfect victims, who he could rape and keep silent,' the prosecutor said. 'He underestimated them.'
Weinstein had a decades-long run as one of the movie industry's most influential people. In 2017, allegations of sexual assault and harassment tanked his career and catalyzed the #MeToo movement, which seeks accountability for sexual misconduct.
He was subsequently convicted of sex crimes and sentenced to prison in New York and California. His California appeal hasn't been decided.
Since the New York retrial opened April 23, prosecutors have brought in more than two dozen witnesses. The prosecution centered on Weinstein's three accusers, who each faced days of questions.
In often graphic and sometimes tearful testimony, the women said the Oscar-winning producer used his showbiz stature as a hook to prey on them.
Jessica Mann, who accused Weinstein of rape, was a hairstylist hoping to make it as an actor when she met him. The sexual assault accusers also were trying to build careers in entertainment: Miriam Haley was a production assistant and producer, and Kaja Sokola was a teenage model who wanted to get into acting.
Prosecutors added Sokola's allegations to the case for the retrial. But some other accusers from the first trial weren't part of the second. The appeals court said it was prejudicial to include their accusations, which never resulted in charges.
Weinstein, 73, decided not to testify. His attorneys presented a few witnesses to cast doubts on certain aspects of the accusers' accounts. But Weinstein's defense also relied heavily on questioning prosecution witnesses — even surprising Sokola with her own private journal — to try to undermine their credibility.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Sokola, Mann and Haley have agreed to be named.