Harvey Weinstein, the former movie mogul, is on trial again in New York for sexual assault. His earlier conviction, overturned last year, was a key moment in the #MeToo movement.
Harvey Weinstein, the former movie mogul, is on trial again in New York for sexual assault. His earlier conviction, overturned last year, was a key moment in the #MeToo movement.
Harvey Weinstein, the former movie mogul, is on trial again in New York for sexual assault. His earlier conviction, overturned last year, was a key moment in the #MeToo movement.
When Harvey Weinstein arrived at the Manhattan criminal courthouse each day in the winter of 2020, he had to navigate throngs of cameras and protesters. Inside, the courtroom was overflowing with reporters prepared to broadcast every moment of his trial to an avid audience.
The trial, in which a jury found Mr. Weinstein guilty of rape, was seen as a critical moment in the #MeToo movement, which demanded accountability for sexual harassment and assault in the workplace. The accusations against him catalyzed activism across the globe, and Mr. Weinstein, once an influential Hollywood producer, was seen as emblematic of the scores of powerful men who lost their jobs after public allegations of misconduct.
But this spring, as Mr. Weinstein, 73, has returned to the same courthouse for a new trial after his initial verdict was overturned on appeal, the scene is markedly different.
Mr. Weinstein, who has been staying at Bellevue Hospital Center in recent weeks because of myriad health problems, is brought to court each morning in a wheelchair. No cameras wait to catch a glimpse of his arrival. A cordoned-off press area in front of the courthouse sits empty. No protesters greet him outside.
Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers believe that the diminished public interest in the case, as well as the waning prominence of the #MeToo movement, bodes well for him. They are betting that the effects of the movement on the nation’s culture and politics, from Hollywood to the White House, have faded, giving them a better chance of success.
At the time of the first trial, #MeToo was “the most important thing in society,” said Arthur L. Aidala, one of Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers. “I think people’s head are in a different place right now,” he added.