3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
What's Changed, and What Hasn't, From Weinstein's First Trial to Now
Good morning. It's Thursday. Today we'll look at the Harvey Weinstein trial, which is expected to go to the jury today. We'll also look at Environmental Protection Agency employees who are unsettled by the presence of immigration agents in the office building where they work.
The witnesses, the prosecutors and Harvey Weinstein's lawyers have had their say. The case against the disgraced former Hollywood power broker is expected to go to the jury today.
The testimony has been similar to what was said at Weinstein's first trial five years ago, and his lawyers have again worked to discredit his accusers. The jury in 2020 convicted him of two felony sex crimes, including rape, but found him not guilty on three other charges, including the most serious one he had faced: being a sexual predator. A jury in Los Angeles convicted him in a separate case two years later. Weinstein appealed both verdicts. The one in Manhattan was overturned last year.
The Manhattan district attorney's office opted for a retrial, and in the six weeks since it began, prosecutors have sought to establish that Weinstein used his power to sexually assault the three women whose accusations are at the center of the case. Shannon Lucey, an assistant district attorney, told the jury on the trial's first day that Weinstein had dangled scripts and the possibility of fame but had wielded 'those dream opportunities as weapons.' He 'wanted their bodies,' Lucey said. She added: 'The more they resisted, the more forceful he got.'
Juries reflect their moment, and this is a different moment from the one that shaped Weinstein's first trial, a significant time for the #MeToo movement and its demand for accountability for workplace sexual harassment and assault by powerful men.
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