Weinstein could face trial for a third time on rape charge

Harvey Weinstein is set to face his third trial in New York City in a sexual assault case, after the jury failed to reach a verdict on a rape charge.

Weinstein, 73, was convicted in June of forcing oral sex on TV and movie production assistant and producer Miriam Haley in 2006.

At the same time, the jury acquitted him of forcing oral sex on another woman, one-time model Kaja Sokola, but couldn’t decide on a charge that he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in 2013.

He is due to be sentenced on September 30 for the Haley conviction, but only if the new trial relating to the Mann charges does not go ahead.

If there is a retrial, the judge wants it to happen in the next few months.

Prosecutors and Weinstein’s lawyers vowed on Wednesday that they were willing to square off at yet another trial, which would be his third in New York and fourth overall.

But Weinstein’s lawyers aren’t ruling out the possibility of reaching a deal to resolve the case, though they also emphasise he’s not willing to plead guilty to raping Mann, and they are pressing prosecutors simply to abandon that charge.

Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers have said they are ready to fight the trial. / Credit: AP

For the charge relating to Mann, any conviction is punishable by up to four years in prison, less than Weinstein has already served, and far less than the potential 25 years he faces for his conviction related to Haley.

At Weinstein’s first trial in 2020, jurors convicted him of raping Mann and forcing oral sex on Haley.

Then an appeals court overturned those convictions in 2024 and sent the case back for retrial because of legal issues involving other women’s testimony.

This spring, a new jury convicted him again of sexually assaulting Haley and acquitted him of doing the same to another woman who wasn’t part of the first trial.

But amid fractious deliberations, the majority-female jury found themselves stuck on the charge related to Mann.

Mann has testified that she also had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with the then-married Weinstein, but that she told him “I don’t want to do this” as he cornered her in the hotel room.

She said he persevered with advances and demands until she “just gave up”.

If an autumn trial happens, it would likely put Weinstein’s high-profile #MeToo case back in court as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is in the final stage of his reelection bid.

Bragg, a first-term Democrat who made prosecuting sex crimes cases a priority, has expressed satisfaction with Weinstein’s conviction on a criminal sex act charge related to Haley.

Bragg has said Mann deserves a verdict on her part of the case.

Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala told reporters outside court that, in his view, it’s up to prosecutors to resolve the rape charge, either by dropping it and clearing the way for sentencing, or by promptly taking it to trial again.

Weinstein sat in court in a wheelchair while wearing a blue suit and black-rimmed glasses.

The Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love producer is committed to fighting the rape charge at another trial, Aidala said, though the lawyer added: “I’ve been doing this long enough to say never say never.”

Weinstein has also been convicted of sex crimes in California; he’s appealing that verdict.

He denies all of the allegations against him.