{"id":229295,"date":"2026-05-12T23:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/229295\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:55:18","slug":"weinstein-defense-urges-acquittal-as-retrial-nears-a-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/229295\/","title":{"rendered":"Weinstein defense urges acquittal as retrial nears a close"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harvey Weinstein’s<\/a> defense urged jurors Tuesday to acquit him and put an end to a #MeToo-era rape case that has gone to trial three times<\/a>, while prosecutors pressed to vied to restore a onetime conviction that got unwound.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Harvey Weinstein’s defense urged jurors Tuesday to acquit him and put an end to a #MeToo-era rape case that has gone to trial three times, while prosecutors pressed to vied to restore a onetime conviction that got unwound
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Weinstein, the former Hollywood honcho who has been imprisoned on various sex crime convictions since 2020, watched quietly as the two sides made their closing arguments about whether he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a New York hotel in March 2013
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Jurors, who are expected to start deliberating Wednesday, will have to sift through the complexities of a yearslong relationship between Weinstein, 73, and Mann, 40<\/p>\n

Weinstein, the former Hollywood honcho who has been imprisoned on various sex crime convictions since 2020, watched quietly as the two sides made their closing arguments about whether he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a New York hotel in March 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has taken on a false narrative about all of this,\u201d Weinstein lawyer Marc Agnifilo<\/a> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has absolutely no motive to lie. None,\u201d prosecutor Nicole Blumberg countered, noting that Mann went through five days<\/a> of grueling, deeply personal testimony.<\/p>\n

Jurors, who are expected to start deliberating Wednesday, will have to sift through the complexities of a yearslong relationship between Weinstein, 73, and Mann, 40.<\/p>\n

They met in early 2013, when she was trying to make it big in Hollywood. She testified<\/a> that she anticipated a professional connection, was taken aback when he started making sexual advances but decided to have a relationship with the then-married, Oscar-winning producer.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later, according to Mann, Weinstein abruptly took a room at a Doubletree hotel where she and a friend were staying. When she accompanied Weinstein upstairs to tell him she didn’t want a sexual interlude, she testified, he trapped her in the room, grabbed her arms, insisted she undress, went into the bathroom for a time, and then raped her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just treated me like he owned me,\u201d she testified last month.<\/p>\n

Weinstein didn’t testify, but his defense contends the encounter was consensual and part of a caring relationship that Mann fostered and leaned on until Weinstein\u2019s #MeToo downfall<\/a> in 2017. That was when news reports about allegations against him propelled a global campaign against sexual assault and sexual harassment. He has said he behaved \u201cwrongly\u201d but never assaulted anyone.<\/a><\/p>\n

He was convicted in 2020<\/a> of raping Mann, got the conviction overturned<\/a>, then saw a jury deadlock<\/a> on it at a retrial last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In summations Tuesday, Agnifilo portrayed Mann as an unreliable witness making an ill-supported, implausible accusation. He pointed to her uncertainty about various dates and details in the years-old events, and he recalled a point when she said she was struggling to stay focused<\/a> during cross-examination, prompting court to end early for the day.<\/p>\n

Agnifilo underscored the warm email exchanges and continued get-togethers Mann had with Weinstein before and after the alleged rape \u2014 and a musing, diary-like note<\/a> she wrote to herself two days after the encounter. In the note, she expresses her misgivings about her emotional attachment in a nonexclusive relationship, asks whether she loves \u201chim or the idea of him,\u201d questions her \u201cwoulds and would nots,\u201d and worries about being \u201ca \u2018bad\u2019 person.\u201d<\/p>\n

The note doesn’t name the man, but Agnifilo asserted it was about Weinstein and that its silence about any alleged assault spoke volumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how she’s falling in love with him\u201d and grappling with feelings of transgressing the values of her religious upbringing,\u201d the defense lawyer argued.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor’s rebuttal: \u201cShe\u2019s burying what the defendant did to her, and she\u2019s struggling with the good parts of the defendant and the awful, the evil parts of the defendant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, Weinstein encouraged Mann\u2019s acting ambitions, helped her land a hairstyling job, provided emotional support during her father\u2019s terminal illness and tried to send her money \u2014 which she declined \u2014 when she was broke, according to trial testimony and exhibits.<\/p>\n

To Weinstein’s attorney, it amounted to \u201ca sweet, loving, supportive relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n

But to Blumberg, \u201cThis was a woman who got manipulated by that man.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mann acknowledged she loved \u201ca part\u201d of Weinstein, she testified that she begged him not to do anything sexual that day in the Manhattan hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo means no \u2014 to everyone except Harvey Weinstein,\u201d Blumberg said, adding: \u201cJessica Mann deserves closure and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever the outcome of the trial, the former studio boss still will stand convicted of other sex crimes in New York<\/a> and California,<\/a> though he is appealing those convictions. If convicted in the current trial, Weinstein could face up to four years in prison \u2014 less time than he already has served.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be named, as Mann has done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Harvey Weinstein’s defense urged jurors Tuesday to acquit him and put an end to a #MeToo-era rape case…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[105,472,10015,117,25,118,303,157,9,24,55,54,12,110,56,308,27,200],"class_list":["post-229295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-all-markets-rank-everywhere","tag-app-arts-entertainment","tag-app-crime","tag-app-for-your-consideration","tag-app-top-stories","tag-associated-press","tag-crime","tag-entertainment","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-nnt","tag-ny","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}