A noticeably thinner Harvey Weinstein was wheeled into Manhattan criminal court on Wednesday for the first time since an appeals court’s shock decision to overturn his 2020 rape conviction.
There, Weinstein cracked a smile as he waved and shook hands with his legal team. He was greeted by rows of reporters and a surprising face: one of the women he was found guilty of abusing at the 2020 trial.
“Jessica Mann, one of the sexual assault victims in this case, is here today to show that she is not backing down and is committed to seeing that justice is served again,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said at the hearing, while pointing to Mann. “She has the truth.”
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“We have every belief that the defendant will be convicted again,” she added.
Mann, who was sitting in the courtroom in a red shirt, looked straight ahead as prosecutors vowed to retry Weinstein as soon as September.
The 73-year-old—clad in a blue blazer with an American flag pin and the price tag still on it—did not look at Mann as a court officer wheeled him into the packed courtroom, two floors above where former President Donald Trump is currently being tried over hush-money payments to a porn star.
Gloria Allred, the lawyer who represents the other woman in Weinstein’s New York case, was also in the courtroom, as well as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
After the 25-minute court hearing, Weinstein gave his lawyer a high-five handshake before a court officer rolled him away.
In a 4-3 decision, the New York Court of Appeals ruled last week that Weinstein’s trial judge “erroneously” allowed testimony from women with sexual misconduct allegations against him who were not victims in the case.
At trial, Weinstein was convicted of sexually assaulting former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haleyi and raping Mann—but jurors heard from at least four other accusers who were meant to bolster the prosecution’s argument that he had a pattern of bad behavior.
“We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose,” the court said in their ruling. “The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross-examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light.”
Prosecutors on Wednesday insisted they could bring another case against Weinstein by September—even without so-called Molineux witnesses—and asked that he be held behind bars in the meantime. Judge Curtis Farber agreed, remanding Weinstein until his next court date on May 29. He still faces 16 years in a California state prison after being convicted of similar charges in Los Angeles in 2022.
An attorney for Tarale Wulff, one of the Molineux witnesses in the New York trial, said in a statement to The Daily Beast that her client “stands proudly in solidarity with the other brave women in this case and is willing to testify again, if needed.”
“Our hearts go out to the women who unfortunately will have to relive their trauma to ensure justice is served in this case,” Lindsay Goldbrum added.
In court, Weinstein’s defense attorneys pushed back against the request to remand, arguing that the toppled titan is no longer convicted of a crime in New York.
“My client is as sharp as ever, he has read hundreds and hundreds of books,” defense attorney Arthur Aidala said in court. “He was acquitted of rape in the first degree. He’s already done his time.”
Aidala added that Weinstein maintains that he is innocent and welcomes a new trial to prove it.
After the hearing, Allred told reporters that Haleyi is still deciding whether she wants to be part of the prosecution’s new case. She then held up a sign that said, “The ‘Me Too’ Reckoning Will Continue.”
Behind the press conference, a lone protester walked back and forth with a sign that read, “Stop WW3, Stop Biden,” and “Save America, Drain the Swamp.”
