On Thursday, Harvey Weinstein addressed Judge Curtis Farber in the Manhattan court, pleading for a reconsideration of his guilty verdict while insisting that he had "never assaulted anyone."
"I know I was unfaithful. I know I acted wrongly. But I never assaulted anyone," Weinstein said, his voice laced with emotion. "Your Honor, I'm begging for a second chance."
He went on to describe his time in Rikers Island as a "march to my death," haunted by the thought of dying "here unseen and unheard."
Weinstein's comments came after Judge Farber denied his lawyer, Arthur Aidala's, motion to vacate the criminal sexual act conviction related to former Project Runway assistant Miriam Haley. The motion included post-trial affidavits from one juror who claimed they were bullied into delivering a guilty verdict.
"I am disappointed in today's decision," Weinstein said. "You witnessed the trial and saw how forces beyond my control have stripped me of my most basic right to be judged fairly." He asked for the judge to meet with the jurors in question.
The former mogul was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, clutching a copy of Unplugged, the memoir of MTV executive Tom Freston. He decried the "isolation" he is facing in prison and said his "mental state is collapsing."
A 12-person jury in Manhattan found Weinstein guilty in June of one count of a criminal sexual act in the first degree against Haley and acquitted him on another count against former model Kaja Sokola. The jury could not reach a verdict on the third count of rape, related to aspiring actress Jessica Mann. That charge ended in a mistrial as the jury foreperson refused to return to deliberate, saying he faced threats from other jurors.
After Weinstein's speech, Judge Farber directed him to read the 25-page decision and said he'd be happy to discuss further, adding, "I promised you that you'll have a fair trial. And a fair trial I believe you had."
In the interim, a tentative March 3 trial date has been set for the remaining rape charge, even as Weinstein appears to be considering a guilty plea.
After the June trial, prosecutors vowed to retry Weinstein on the rape charge with support from Mann. However, Weinstein's attorney Aidala expressed his frustration in court Thursday at the fact that the rape charge was going to a trial for a third time rather than coming to some kind of resolution with the prosecution. He pointed to Weinstein's age, 73, and his health problems, as well as the 16-year sentence he still faces in California.
"We're going to go to a trial for a third time on an E as in elephant felony," Aidala said. "If his name was not Harvey Weinstein, this case would be disposed of."
In August, Aidala had said Weinstein did not want to plead guilty to the charge, claiming that he "doesn't want the word rape associated with him." However, he suggested Thursday that there may be an openness to a plea "If there was a court offer that would run concurrent" to his current sentencing.
After speaking with Weinstein and prosecutors Thursday, Aidala said that his "client wants additional time to think about it."
The charge is rape in the third degree, which is a Class E felony in New York and carries a maximum prison sentence of four years. Weinstein was convicted on the charge in 2020 but that conviction was overturned in April 2024. He has not yet been sentenced on the criminal sexual act related to Haley and still faces an additional 16-year sentence in California, for which he has not yet served any time. He has been at Rikers since April 2024, after his initial 2020 New York conviction was overturned. He also spent time at Bellevue Hospital, including during the trial as the former mogul has been in poor health.
