Harvey Weinstein Trial Shows #MeToo’s Fading Power, Win or Lose

Harvey Weinstein will likely be behind bars for the rest of his life, but he’s taking the #MeToo movement down with him.

His latest trial, currently unfolding in a Manhattan criminal courtroom, is a testament to how he’s chipped away at the power—and perhaps the will—for victims to band together in proceedings against alleged sexual predators. He’s been convicted at every preceding trial, but after a labyrinthine series of legal wins, he’s now on his fourth attempt to prove his innocence.

Ex-actress Jessica Mann is testifying wearily for a third time (she said she was feeling “spacey” and “disassociated” on the stand). There are no other women testifying to similar conduct. The courtroom’s cleared out. Cross-examination was withering, with Mann ordered to read a note she wrote days after Weinstein allegedly raped her that didn’t mention rape and instead said, “Do I love him or the idea of him?”

Finally, it’s the trial Weinstein always wanted.

Narrowing the proceedings to a lone woman’s testimony is “really going to make a difference,” said Donna Rotunno, Weinstein’s lawyer at his initial trial. Now, “there’s definitely a world in which a jury can find him not guilty.”

An acquittal would be more of a symbolic victory for Weinstein than a practical one. Across the four trials (in two states), two convictions have stuck, and they’re enough to keep the ailing 74-year-old behind bars for good if they stay put on appeal.

But the latest trial’s stark differences from the first reflect Weinstein’s success at putting up hurdles for #MeToo.

In 2020, a group of women testified in New York against the Miramax co-founder, and many more—including actresses like Rose McGowan—showed up at the courthouse to support them. Weinstein was convicted of raping Mann and sexually assaulting ex-production assistant Miriam Haley, then was sentenced to 23 years.

Four years later, he persuaded New York’s top court to overturn that conviction, with the court finding that the central promise of #MeToo—collective action—is legally problematic. The large group of women who testified to uncharged abuse deprived Weinstein of a fair trial, the court said in a 4-3 decision.

That ruling’s been a gift to New York defense attorneys, who cite it to keep out claims of uncharged ugly behavior. A recent New York ruling overturning a man’s conviction for sexually abusing a minor cited the now-landmark Weinstein decision.

While the federal system is comparatively more permissive of prior-bad-acts evidence, federal judges have taken an interest in the Weinstein ruling.

A district court judge in Manhattan cited the case in granting partial summary judgment to Fox News and ex-anchor Ed Henry on ex-producer Jennifer Eckhart’s claims of sexual assault and revenge porn. (Henry and Eckhart later settled on the eve of trial, while Fox News escaped liability.)

“For survivors,” the 2024 ruling has been “a deterrent,” said Lindsay Goldbrum, an attorney who represents women alleging sexual assault. Still, she added, there are “ebbs and flows in the rights that survivors have, and oftentimes, they swing with the cultural norms.”

Weinstein’s legal picture has been looking up, though likely not enough for him to go free. His retrial last year—whittled down to three accusers—returned a mixed verdict, with jurors hung on Mann’s rape allegation, leading to the current trial. (A separate conviction is on appeal in California.)

This time, he tapped the litigators who represented Sean “Diddy” Combs at a trial where Combs escaped sex trafficking charges—which carried life—and was sentenced to about four years on prostitution-related charges.

Mann’s lonely testimony has revived calls to pass New York legislation that would allow witnesses to testify to uncharged conduct.

The trial is “a clarifying moment about how things should change in the world of legal procedure,” Jeffrey Seaman, a Levy Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, wrote in Slate. “Mann shouldn’t be forced to stand alone.”

But the bill has stalled—with progressives who helped buoy #MeToo in the first place raising concerns that it would vitiate due process and fundamental fairness for defendants beyond Weinstein.

New York Democratic Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, the bill sponsor, said it would have a “tremendous impact on women” and she’s fighting to pass it. But, she added, “it may not be tomorrow.”