Harvey Weinstein Rape Retrial Heads to Opening Statements in New York

Harvey Weinstein was headed back to opening statements with one of the defining #MeToo prosecutions still grinding through the New York courts. After four days of jury selection, a 12-person panel of seven men and five women was seated to decide whether the 73-year-old former movie mogul raped Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.

This third New York trial was narrower than the earlier fights that put Weinstein in the center of the public reckoning. Jurors were being asked to weigh only the Mann rape count, not the broader set of allegations that surfaced in previous proceedings. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty, and the case was expected to last up to four weeks.

The retrial exists because New York’s highest court wiped out Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on April 25, 2024, in a 4-3 decision. The Court of Appeals said the trial judge had improperly allowed testimony about allegations that were not part of the formal charges, a ruling that sent the landmark case back into court and reopened the legal fight over how far prosecutors can go in a sexual assault trial built around prior bad acts.

Weinstein’s last New York retrial in June 2025 ended in a split result. A Manhattan jury convicted him of sexually assaulting former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haley, acquitted him of assaulting former model Kaja Sokola, and then deadlocked on the Jessica Mann rape count. That mistrial came after jury-room conflict, including a foreperson who refused to keep deliberating. Manhattan prosecutors said they were ready to try the rape charge yet again.

The defense side also entered this round with a different feel. Weinstein told Bloomberg Law he was considering testifying, which would be his first time on the stand after four trials. Longtime defense lawyer Arthur Aidala stepped aside from the retrial in February 2026, another sign that the strategy around Weinstein’s defense was shifting as the case narrowed and the stakes remained high.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, signaled they wanted to add new evidence, including testimony from a court security officer. That move suggested Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office were trying to strengthen the case with more courtroom texture, not just the core accusation itself.

Weinstein remains incarcerated because of his prior convictions, including a separate California case, so this New York retrial was not about freedom in the short term. It was about whether one of the most watched sexual assault prosecutions of the #MeToo era would produce yet another verdict, another reversal, or another hung jury.