Weinstein Bid to Toss Verdict Says Jurors Voted Out of Fear (1)

Harvey Weinstein said his conviction on a sex assault charge in New York should be thrown out after jurors said they were harassed by fellow jurors into finding him guilty.

Weinstein’s motion for a Manhattan state court to toss the verdict, which is dated Oct. 7 but was released Thursday, comes with two sworn affidavits from jurors at the 2025 trial who said they voted for a conviction because they feared other jurors.

“If I could have voted by secret ballot, I would have returned a not guilty verdict on all three charges,” reads one juror affidavit.

One of the jurors also said Judge Curtis Farber didn’t adequately address concerns of juror harassment when raised at the time. The other juror affidavit said the juror felt afraid to speak up in court after hearing threats in the jury room to holdouts such as “I’ll catch you outside.”

The motion and the juror statements offer unusual close-up accounts of jury deliberations. They describe a dramatic atmosphere of yelling, finger-pointing, and threats.

One of the juror affidavits alleges that a fellow juror claimed Weinstein was bribing a panel member. “The false allegation” that a juror was being paid “shifted deliberations from an even 6-6 split to a sudden unanimous verdict,” the affidavit states.

The other juror affidavit said that after telling fellow panel members Weinstein was not guilty on any charges, a juror replied, “We have to get rid of you.”

“When I arrived home, I called two family members and told them to come look for me if they didn’t hear from me, since something was not right about this jury deliberation process,” the affidavit states.

“I was so afraid of the repercussions and feared for my physical safety that I ultimately voted with the majority,” the juror affidavit adds.

The affidavits received by Bloomberg Law have the names of the jurors redacted.

Weinstein in June was convicted of sexual assault at his second New York trial after an earlier verdict was overturned on appeal. A mistrial was declared at the June trial on a separate rape charge, and the ex-movie mogul was acquitted of a separate sex assault charge.

He has yet to be sentenced on the conviction. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has said it’s ready to try the rape case again. In a court appearance on Thursday, Farber said Weinstein had been reluctant to take a plea offer.

Before the verdict earlier this year, the jury foreperson told Farber he was being pressured to change his vote. The judge denied the defense’s mistrial motion at the time and ordered the panel to continue deliberating.

“The trial court was placed on notice during deliberations that jurors engaged in threats, intimidation, and extraneous bias, yet it refused to conduct the required inquiry,” Weinstein attorneys argued in their motion. “The resulting verdict was improper.”

The case is People v. Weinstein, N.Y. Sup. Ct., No. 2335/2018, 10/9/25.