NEW YORK (AP) — The defense rested its case Tuesday in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial, relying on just a few witnesses to supplement aggressive cross-examination as they aimed to undercut his accusers, all while keeping the disgraced Hollywood producer off the witness stand.
As expected, Weinstein chose not to tell his own story at the risk of having prosecutors grill him on cross-examination about disturbing allegations that six of his accusers detailed for a Manhattan jury of seven men and five women.
The decision came a day after the defense got a boost from two witnesses who cast doubt on the accounts of two women who say they were sexually assaulted by Weinstein.
Weinstein, 67, is charged with raping a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex in 2006 on a different woman: film and TV production assistant Mimi Haley.
Prosecutors called other accusers as witnesses as part of an effort to show he has used the same tactics to victimize many women over the years.
Weinstein has maintained any sexual encounters were consensual. read more
I’m rootin’ for Harvey. Hollywood whores are liars
Didn’t hitlery say you have to believe the women? Watch wiensteins’ walker disappear after the trial. What a POS.
From what I’ve read in reports, he didn’t have the balls to testify.
Old Mister Perv and his Ms. Perverts deserve each other! Quid Pro Sex!
I suspect that most are volunteers as opposed to being victims. Maybe all of them. It is a tall order to plead victim status when the “victim” is a member of a population that has a reputation for shopping around the pussy in exchange for favors. Hell, they even write books bragging about it.
If it were not for the reputation of the accused and the business he is in I would think this a slam dunk acquittal, but it is a difficult task to figure who to root for in this case. Both sides are sleazy and chock full of confirmed liars.
Harvey would be complete disaster during cross examination. He would have screwed himself so badly, he would actually need a walker to exit the court room.
So,
A call girl shows up and gets paid in cash for her services.
An actress shows up and gets paid with an acting roll for her services.
What’s the difference?
It’s not as if either of them didn’t have the choice to either not go or to leave when they heard the price they were going to be paid.
“Leave Harvey alone! He’s a God!” Meryl Streep.
Who’s going to speak for that potted plant he spunked all over?
I suspect that Weinstein is guilty of a lot of the crimes he’s accused of however I also suspect that a lot of the accusers (both those that entered the courtroom as well as those that did not choose to file a charge but howled on the web/twitter/facebook) were piling on with enhanced accounts of what happened to claim sympathy/publicity/cash. It will be interesting to see if the jury can separate truth from fiction and come up with a fair verdict.
I also wonder whether Weinstein will become the sacrifice that will shut down any other attempts to punish those movers and shakers in Hollywood who were guilty of actions as bad or worse then his.
He’s sixty-seven? Sixty? Seven.
Isn’t this — in a big way — just another branch of the #MeToo movement? IOW, isn’t this more about Cultural Marxism (Identity Politics) than any individual woman accusing Weinstein? I think if it had not been Weinstein, it would have been another Hollywood movie mogul or high-powered male personage (white and not overtly bi- or gay, that is).
As many here have already written: Hollywood is (and always has been, as far as I can tell) America’s Soddom and Gemorah.
I hope they soon get down to the real crimes there: child sexual trafficking.