Joe Rogan was consuming an elk steak whereas watching the primary installment of Candace Owens’ newest mission aiming to exonerate Harvey Weinstein when he got here to a realization: He agreed with the far-right commentator.
“I can’t consider I’m on Harvey Weinstein’s facet,” he stated on a March 22 podcast. “I assumed he was responsible of like heinous crimes and then you definitely pay attention, and also you’re like ‘Wait, what? What’s going on?’”
The episode nodded to seminal moments within the #MeToo period since Weinstein’s intercourse crimes conviction in 2020 which have given critics runway to argue that the motion went too far. Johnny Depp’s defamation victory over Amber Heard. Danny Masterson’s mistrial on rape expenses (he was later convicted). The Blake Full of life-Justin Baldoni saga.
Rogan’s takeaway? “If this occurred within the 80s, it most likely would have been thrown out,” he stated of prosecutors’ case in opposition to Weinstein. “However within the #MeToo motion, it was a sizzling witch hunt.” He and Owens are conducting a rising refrain of skepticism round not solely Weinstein’s guilt but in addition accusations of intercourse crimes from victims, notably these whose relationships with the accused fluctuated between compelled and consensual intercourse — a dynamic that some consultants say is simply too messy to safe convictions.
Arthur Aidala, Weinstein’s lawyer, is betting that the local weather round #MeToo will play in his shopper’s favor this time round, or on the very least, not in opposition to him. “Individuals are realizing that the phrase ‘consider ladies’ is an anti-American and anti-ends-of-justice idiotic assertion,” he says. “We shouldn’t consider all people. We should always decide given our frequent sense whether or not they’re telling the reality.”
On April 22, Weinstein is slated to be wheeled into the thirteenth ground of the Manhattan Legal Courts Constructing from a holding cell for opening statements in what can be his third trial on accusations that he was a sexual predator who wielded his energy within the leisure trade to serially abuse ladies in his orbit. He’s been charged below two indictments for 3 intercourse crimes in opposition to Miriam Haley, Jessica Mann and an accuser whose identification has but to be disclosed to the general public and is known as complaining witness #3 in court docket filings.
“On this case, justice has been delayed,” stated Lindsay Goldbrum, an lawyer for the accuser, on April 15 exterior the courthouse forward of jury choice. “As she has instructed me her expertise and once more instructed the DA her experiences one factor has been crystal clear: that this was not consensual. This was sexual assault with power.”
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur L. Aidala arrives for Weinstein’s court docket date on the Manhattan Legal Courthouse on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 in New York Metropolis.
For his newest trial, Weinstein has assembled the who’s who of legal protection attorneys highly-regarded of their particular areas of experience. Defending Weinstein means making your case to the press as a lot because it does a jury. And Aidala, whose purchasers have included Rudy Giuliani, Roger Ailes and Lawrence Taylor, is one thing of a specialist in headlining-grabbing media circumstances, with a weekday radio present, “The Arthur Aidala Energy Hour,” to unfold his gospel. He has deep ties to the leisure trade because the final dean of the Friars Membership, a stomping floor for Manhattan’s showbiz elite, earlier than it closed final yr, and was amongst Leslie Moonves’ first calls when the previous CBS exec was accused of sexual misconduct. Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Legislation Faculty professor who made his identify taking over unpopular causes and purchasers as a legal protection lawyer many years in the past, has known as Aidala “the brand new me.”
Sitting subsequent to him can be Michael Cibella, a seasoned trial lawyer recognized for his capacity to level out inconsistencies in witness testimony to a jury. Count on him to be aggressive on cross-examination, which can be particularly vital in what’s turn into a he-said, they-said case. And rounding out Weinstein’s trial group is Jennifer Bonjean, a combative lawyer who led the trouble to overturn Invoice Cosby’s sexual assault conviction and has represented R. Kelly and NXIVM founder Keith Raniere. She’s performed the position of general trial strategist for the protection.
They are going to face off in opposition to Nicole Blumberg, Shannon Lucey and Matthew Colangelo, a former high-ranking Justice Division official who spearheaded the hush cash case in opposition to President Donald Trump. In contrast to the primary trial, which was dealt with by murder prosecutors, this one is led by the newly-formed particular victims division.
The trial is anticipated to final 4 to 6 weeks. It’ll revolve round allegations from Haley, a former manufacturing assistant on Undertaking Runway who alleges that Weinstein compelled oral intercourse on her at his TriBeCa condominium in 2006, Mann, an ex-aspiring actress who alleges that she was raped at a Midtown Manhattan lodge in 2013, and a 3rd nameless accuser who alleges Weinstein compelled oral intercourse her at a Manhattan lodge in 2006. In contrast to the primary trial, their accusations won’t be fortified by testimony from three ladies whose allegations didn’t result in formal expenses in opposition to Weinstein however claimed they have been assaulted by him. By prosecutors’ pondering, this proof was essential to proving that Weinstein knew that his accusers wouldn’t consent to having intercourse with him as merely a quid professional quo for advancing their film careers and needed to resort to the usage of power.
The introduction of testimony from the ladies — generally known as “Molineux witnesses” — was the premise of New York’s highest court docket final yr overturning Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction in a landmark ruling that some known as a referendum on the shortcomings of the #MeToo motion. A seven-judge panel of the state Courts of Appeals, in a 4-3 choice that included a sharply-worded dissent, discovered that the “trial court docket erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts” in what amounted to an “abuse of judicial discretion” that unfairly biased the jury in opposition to Weinstein. Within the first trial, the Manhattan District Lawyer’s Workplace appeared to confess such proof primarily as a result of Weinstein’s accusers had additionally had consensual intercourse with him.
Harvey Weinstein seems in Manhattan Legal Courtroom for the third day of jury choice in his retrial, on April 17, 2025 in New York Metropolis.
“I can’t say I used to be shocked,” says Deborah Tuerkheimer, a former Manhattan prosecutor who’s now a legislation professor at Northwestern, of the overturning of Weinstein’s conviction final yr.
Exterior of court docket, there’s little doubt that Weinstein improperly leveraged his energy in Hollywood to control ladies into intercourse. Practically 100 people have accused him of abuse. The amount of proof is staggering, with energy gamers throughout the trade corroborating accounts of sexual misconduct. On the identical time, Weinstein’s alleged crimes in opposition to most of these ladies can’t function the inspiration of an indictment in opposition to the one-time kingmaker. The bulk concerned allegations of civil sexual harassment moderately than assault or rape. Others occurred in California, the place the Los Angeles District Lawyer’s Workplace would later carry a case, and the remainder fell past the window to carry expenses. The refrain of Weinstein’s condemnation belied the small group of girls whose allegations might truly stand on the heart of a trial.
So in 2018, with federal prosecutors eyeing a possible case and below strain by the governor for not pursuing expenses years earlier, the Manhattan District Lawyer’s Workplace made the gamble that might result in the overturning of Weinstein’s intercourse crimes conviction. With out testimony from the three extra ladies whose accusations didn’t result in expenses, Halim Dhanidina, a former prosecutor who served a nine-year stint as a state and court docket of appeals choose, observes there’s a steeper hill to climb to safe a conviction this time round. “It’ll have a big impression,” he says. “The prosecution’s burden is greater. The fees they filed should now be capable of stand alone.”
On the coronary heart of Weinstein’s protection: The accusers had consensual and sometimes transactional intercourse with him to advance their careers. This would be the hardest dynamic the jury can be requested to navigate. Protection attorneys will probably level to Haley and Weinstein having intercourse two weeks after she was assaulted by him, signing certainly one of her emails to him with “A lot of love.” She stated she did so as a result of she “simply put it away in a field and pretended prefer it didn’t occur,” Haley testified throughout the first trial.
On cross-examination six years in the past, Damon Cheronis, certainly one of Weinstein’s former attorneys, characterised Haley as having fun with her sexual encounter with Weinstein when she agreed to fulfill him in a lodge room. He confirmed the jury hearts she drew on her calendar within the subsequent days.
“You stated you draw hearts to kind of mirror your temper. Is that reflective of your temper on July the twenty seventh, twenty eighth and twenty ninth?” Cheronis requested.
“It might have been,” Haley replied.
One other line of argument protection attorneys are anticipated to attract from embrace Mann acknowledging that her three-year relationship with Weinstein included consensual intercourse. “You don’t inform him you’re keen on him in 2016 and you might be uninterested in being a booty name in 2017 and name him a predator in 2020,” Cheronis stated, citing messages she despatched him after the alleged rape.
Mann testified that she was usually manipulated into intercourse by Weinstein, who exerted immense management over her profession. Daybreak Hughes, an professional witness on the psychological and traumatic results of rape, will testify for the prosecution to, partly, clarify a few of the dynamics that present why some victims of sexual assault behave in the way in which Mann and Haley did.
“It’s laborious for juries to wrap their heads round why they appeared to have, within the aftermath of the assaults, search him out and have pleasant relations with him,” says Matthew Galluzzo, a legal protection lawyer and former lawyer for the New York County District Lawyer’s Workplace. “It’s a tough case for prosecutors. They even get nervous about bringing these kinds of circumstances.”
Notably, Weinstein has already served his jail time period for the overturned conviction stemming from Mann’s rape cost. He can be credited for that point if the jury convicts once more, which means that it’s going to not have any impression on his sentence. For essentially the most half, his attorneys will look to undermine expenses referring to Haley and the third accuser.
Count on credibility to play a significant half within the consequence of the trial, even moreso than in different circumstances. This was the deciding consider Depp’s lopsided defamation win in 2022 in opposition to Heard on allegations that he was defamed by her op-ed in The Washington Submit. Of the $15 million that the jury awarded Depp, $5 million was in punitive damages aimed to punish Heard for particularly reprehensible conduct. The decision indicated that jurors have been reluctant to consider testimony from Heard, who broke down in tears on the witness stand when graphically recounting an incident wherein she stated she was overwhelmed and raped by Depp.
And it wasn’t till the court docket allowed the prosecution free rein to inform jurors that Masterson drugged his victims — immediately clashing together with his place that the intercourse was consensual — that they convicted the actor on expenses of rape. Even with that change from the preliminary trial, which resulted in a hung jury, jurors cut up on a cost referring to Masterson’s former longtime girlfriend.
Aidala figures the tables might have turned this time round. He likes his possibilities. #MeToo has been “uncovered as not being this excellent motion it was alleged to have been,” he claims. “Harvey was pinned because the poster boy for it.”
That will not change, however he won’t need to spend the remainder of his life at Rikers Island if he wins this trial. Then all eyes will flip to California.