Harvey Weinstein returns to court in retrial case

Harvey Weinstein’s retrial began Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom, marking the start of a new chapter in a legal battle that first made headlines during the rise of the #MeToo movement.

Jury selection is now underway, with the disgraced former film producer facing a fresh set of charges stemming from incidents in 2006 and 2013, as well as a new accusation from a third woman.

Weinstein, 73, made a brief court appearance wearing a blue suit and matching tie before the selection process began. He has been held at Rikers Island since last year, after New York’s highest court overturned his 2020 rape conviction, citing procedural missteps.

Now, five years after the original trial became a watershed moment for the #MeToo era, the retrial is being closely watched as a test of how the cultural reckoning around sexual misconduct continues to play out in the legal system.

His attorney, Arthur Aidala, voiced optimism about the retrial, saying, “We’re looking forward to a fair trial in a very different climate,” referencing the intense media attention and protests that surrounded the original proceedings.

Weinstein is currently facing three primary accusations in this trial: the alleged rape of an aspiring actor in a New York City hotel in 2013, and two separate allegations involving forced oral sex at Manhattan hotels in 2006. One of the latter cases comes from a woman who was not involved in the initial trial and remains unnamed.

Unlike the first trial, where prosecutors brought in three additional witnesses to help establish a pattern of behavior, this time only the three accusers directly tied to the charges will testify. That change follows an April 2023 ruling by the New York Court of Appeals, which found the presence of so-called “prior bad acts” witnesses in the earlier case prejudiced the jury.

The retrial is expected to last between five and six weeks, with jury selection alone projected to take up to four days. The court aims to seat 12 jurors and six alternates from a large pool of candidates.

Weinstein, who has consistently denied all allegations of non-consensual sex, has been vocal about his declining health and the conditions at Rikers Island. At a court hearing earlier this year, he pleaded with the judge to accelerate the trial timeline.

“Every day I'm at Rikers, it's a mystery to me how I'm still walking,” he said in January. “I'm holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over with.”

Even if he is acquitted in this New York retrial, Weinstein will remain behind bars. He is currently serving a 16-year sentence in California following a 2022 conviction on separate rape charges in Los Angeles — a case that is also under appeal.