When a prosecutor rose to make her closing argument at Harvey Weinstein’s retrial on sex crimes charges on Tuesday, the Manhattan courtroom’s televisions showed a picture of him clad in a smart black suit, on a red carpet, smiling with his hands spread before a throng of clamoring photographers.
The image, taken at a star-studded gala at the Cannes Film Festival, captured the former Hollywood producer at the height of his power — power Mr. Weinstein used to sexually assault three women, the prosecutor, Nicole Blumberg, told the jury.
He took private flights, had a personal driver and attended events with dignitaries and celebrities regularly.
“I want you to remember it’s not the person sitting here today in the wheelchair,” Ms. Blumberg, a prosecutor with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said, pointing to the picture: “It’s that man.”
Ms. Blumberg’s statements, which continued on Wednesday, will be the last arguments the jury hears before beginning its deliberations over whether to convict him on two counts of a first-degree criminal sexual act and one count of third degree rape.
It is the second time in five years that Mr. Weinstein, 73, has faced a Manhattan jury. The state’s highest court overturned his a 2020 conviction on sex crimes charges last year.
Mr. Weinstein has been at the defense table every day since the trial began in April, sitting in a wheelchair and flanked by his lawyers. He has pleaded not guilty, and he did not testify.
Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers, one of whom delivered the defense’s closing argument on Tuesday, say their client’s actions were not criminal, but sexual, “transactional” relationships with three women who were using him to advance their careers. The lawyer, Arthur L. Aidala, said prosecutors were trying to police people’s bedrooms.
Ms. Blumberg sought to counter that assertion.
“We don’t want to police the bedroom,” she said. “Unless you’re forcibly raping someone inside of it.”
Throughout the trial, prosecutors have tried to establish that Mr. Weinstein used his power in Hollywood to sexually assault the three women whose accusations are at the heart of the case. The women, Miriam Haley, Jessica Mann and Kaja Sokola, were all seeking work in the film and television industry.
Mr. Weinstein, who had a reputation as a star-maker, amassed influence and accolades while harassing and sexually assaulting women, according to dozens who came forward with accusations against him. Many of the women said they were young and trying to make it in the industry when they met him.
His lawyers have argued that Ms. Haley, Ms. Mann and Ms. Sokola were motivated by a desire for money and fame. The women, Mr. Aidala told the jurors, came forward to testify against Mr. Weinstein because their dreams had been “broken.”
“If they would have gotten what they needed from him when he was at the top, they would have never been here,” Mr. Aidala said.
Mr. Weinstein shook his head throughout the prosecution’s closings. At one point, when Ms. Blumberg described Ms. Sokola’s account of being molested by him in a bathroom when she was 16, Mr. Weinstein shook his head vigorously and slapped his hands on the sides of his head. (He was not charged in connection with that episode, but for an assault Ms. Sokola said took place about four years later).
In her summation, Ms. Blumberg sought to rebut the defense’s suggestion that the three women had come forward for money or notoriety.
In winter 2020, when Ms. Mann and Ms. Haley testified at Mr. Weinstein’s first trial, their names and faces were broadcast widely, as were their accounts of being sexually assaulted, Ms. Blumberg told the jury.
In the aftermath, Ms. Haley changed the spelling of her last name, and Ms. Mann refused to speak in public for more than a year after the end of the trial.
But, Ms. Blumberg continued, both women had agreed to return to the witness stand, retell their painful stories of assault and submit to cross-examination.
Doing so has taken a toll, Ms. Blumberg said. Ms. Sokola, who did not testify at the first trial, has had her personal struggles with alcohol, eating disorders, a contentious divorce and problems with her sister aired in open court, the prosecutor said.
“Only in a rape trial,” she added, “it actually feels like you’re the person on trial.”
Ms. Blumberg added: “Who puts themselves through that unless they’re telling the truth?”
Hurubie Meko is a Times reporter covering criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney’s office and state courts.
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