Prosecutors once again portrayed Harvey Weinstein as a onetime Hollywood power player who used his sway as a tool of sexual assault, repainting a familiar but fraught picture on Tuesday (April 21, 2026) at a rape retrial nearly eight years after the former movie tycoon’s arrest.
Jury convicts Harvey Weinstein of top charge in the retrial of his landmark #MeToo sex crimes case
“This case will come down to power, to control and to manipulation,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White told jurors as opening statements began in the bellwether #MeToo case, with DA Alvin Bragg watching from the audience.
Weinstein lawyer Jacob Kaplan countered that the case actually “is about consent, about choice and about regret”, echoing Weinstein’s long-time defence that his accuser has recast a willing encounter as a crime.
Since Weinstein became a major target of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct nearly a decade ago, he has been convicted of some sexual assault charges and acquitted of others in trials on two U.S. coasts. A couple of charges ultimately were dismissed.
