Harvey Weinstein Could Be Retried This Fall After Rape Conviction Overturned

Manhattan prosecutors on Wednesday said they planned to retry Harvey Weinstein on sex crimes charges after his recently overturned conviction and could be ready to do so as soon as this fall.

“It was a strong case in 2020,” Nicole Blumberg, an assistant district attorney, said, adding: “It remains a strong case in 2024.”

Mr. Weinstein, 72, the disgraced former Hollywood producer, appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court before Justice Curtis Farber on Wednesday, the first time he had been in court since his 2020 conviction was overturned last week.

Dressed in a dark suit and white shirt, Mr. Weinstein smiled and waved at his legal team as he was pushed into the courtroom in a wheelchair. His lawyer in New York, Arthur Aidala, sat beside him at the defense table, while his lawyer in California, Jennifer Bonjean, sat in the rows behind him. In court, Mr. Aidala said that his client wasn’t healthy physically but was “sharp as a tack” mentally.

Judge Farber ordered that Mr. Weinstein be remanded and set the next hearing date for May 29.

In 2020, Mr. Weinstein was convicted of raping one woman and committing a criminal sexual act against another, but the New York Court of Appeals overturned the convictions last Thursday, saying he had not had a fair trial. It was a 4-to-3 decision that horrified many of the women whose decision to speak out against him had helped ignite the #MeToo movement.

On Wednesday, Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, sat in the rows behind the prosecutors. In his row was Jessica Mann, one of the accusers in the case, who was an aspiring actress when she said Mr. Weinstein raped her in a New York hotel room.

In the decision to overturn the conviction, the court sided with Mr. Weinstein’s defense team, ruling that the trial judge who presided over the case had erred in allowing the prosecutors to call as witnesses women who said that they were sexually assaulted by Mr. Weinstein but whose accusations were not tied to the charges he faced.

In court on Wednesday, Ms. Blumberg, the chief assistant district attorney, noted that Ms. Mann was present.

“She is here today to show that she is not backing down and is committed to justice being served again,” Ms. Blumberg said.

Another of Mr. Weinstein’s two main accusers, Miriam Haley, was not in court but said at a news conference last week that she would consider testifying again.

“I definitely don’t actually want to go through that again, but for the sake of keeping going and doing the right thing and because it is what happened, I would consider it,” she said. “It is difficult for me personally, but it is important for the collective.”

Mr. Aidala has said that his team would object to any plans from the prosecution to call on Ms. Mann because they believe Mr. Weinstein has already served enough time to account for the sentence in her case.

Mr. Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence at a prison facility in upstate New York, was transferred on Friday to the Rikers Island jail complex to await next steps in his judicial process. He is also facing 16 years in prison in California, where, in 2022, he was convicted of raping an Italian actress in 2013. He was to begin that sentence after finishing his term in New York. Ms. Bonjean, his lawyer, has said she plans to appeal that ruling this month and that she believes the overturned conviction in New York would help her case.

Mr. Bragg addressed his office’s effort to retry Mr. Weinstein at an unrelated news conference after Wednesday’s hearing, saying the appeals court’s ruling limited their ability to use some of the evidence from the first trial but that they were still confident.

“We look forward to having a new day in court and the court of appeals decision not being the last word or chapter on this,” he said.

Mr. Bragg added that the office was already “having conversation with survivors, centering their well-being and pursuing justice.”

At a separate news conference after the hearing, Mr. Aidala said that his team was ready to defend Mr. Weinstein in a new trial — “if” the case went to trial again. This time around, he said, the “most obvious” difference is the judge — Justice Farber — whom he called “night and day” from the first trial judge, James Burke.

“We want a judge that will rule according to the law,” he said.