Closing Arguments Conclude in Harvey Weinstein’s Third Rape Trial

Closing arguments concluded Tuesday in the Manhattan criminal court rape case against Harvey Weinstein, the third time the #MeToo-era prosecution has gone to trial. Weinstein, 73, appeared in court on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, as his lawyer urged jurors to acquit him and prosecutors pressed to restore a conviction that was later overturned. Jurors are expected to start deliberating Wednesday.

The case centers on the alleged rape of Jessica Mann, 40, in March 2013 at a Doubletree hotel in Manhattan. Mann and Weinstein met in early 2013 when she was trying to make it big in Hollywood. Mann testified that she anticipated a professional connection with Weinstein when they met in early 2013.

She said he started making sexual advances shortly afterward and that she decided to have a relationship with him. A few weeks later, according to Mann, Weinstein took a room at the Doubletree hotel where she and a friend were staying. When she went upstairs with him to say she did not want a sexual interlude, he trapped her in the room, grabbed her arms, insisted she undress, went into the bathroom and then raped her, she testified.

She also testified that she begged Weinstein not to do anything sexual that day in the Manhattan hotel and that she loved "a part" of him. Mann went through five days of grueling, deeply personal testimony. At one point she said she was struggling to stay focused during cross-examination, prompting court to end early for the day.

Weinstein did not testify. His defense contends the encounter with Mann was consensual and part of a caring relationship. "She has taken on a false narrative about all of this," Weinstein lawyer Marc Agnifilo said.

Agnifilo portrayed Mann as an unreliable witness making an ill-supported, implausible accusation and pointed to her uncertainty about various dates and details in the years-old events. Two days after the alleged rape, Mann wrote a diary-like note to herself expressing misgivings about her emotional attachment in a nonexclusive relationship.

" Agnifilo asserted that the note was about Weinstein and that its silence about any alleged assault spoke volumes.

"This is how she’s falling in love with him" and grappling with feelings of transgressing the values of her religious upbringing, the defense lawyer argued. Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg countered that "She has absolutely no motive to lie. " Over the years, Weinstein encouraged Mann’s acting ambitions, helped her land a hairstyling job, provided emotional support during her father’s terminal illness and tried to send her money — which she declined — when she was broke, according to trial testimony and exhibits.

Weinstein has said he behaved "wrongly" but never assaulted anyone. He was convicted in 2020 of raping Mann, but that conviction was overturned. A jury deadlocked on the rape charge against him at a retrial last year.

Weinstein has been imprisoned on various sex crime convictions since 2020. com reported the details of Tuesday’s summations and the history of the case.