Harvey Weinstein died: his lawyers try to discredit an accuser

The lawyers of the fallen king of Cinema Harvey Weinstein, in trial in New York for sexual violation and aggression, judged on Thursday, May 1 to discredit the account of an alleged victim saying that he was motivated by money.

For the third consecutive day, Miriam Haley, a former production assistant who accuses Harvey Weinstein of having imposed a sexual relationship by force in 2006, in the New York apartment of the Magnate, witnesses the Criminal Court of New York.

The former film producer was reviewed there after the resounding rotation by the New York Court of Appeals in 2024 of his sentence at 23 years in prison in 2020 for rape and sexual aggression.

A approach motivated by money according to a lawyer

Miriam Haley spoke after years of silence in October 2017, a few days after the New York Times and New Yorker shock investigations that revealed that Harvey Weinstein, a powerful Hollywood character, was accused by many women of sexual assault. He then agreed to be one of the key witnesses of the accusation in the trial of the founder of the Miramax Studios, in 2020 in New York.

An approach motivated by money launched one of the lawyers for the former producer on Thursday, Jennifer Bonjean.

“You went to see prosecutors only when you learned that” Harvey Weinstein could not continue before civil justice, and claim damage, “only if the criminal procedures were activated,” he said.

During sometimes tense exchanges, Miriam Haley refuted this type of approach. “I didn’t know, at that time, there was an option to obtain financial compensation,” she replied.

Weinstein sentenced to 16 years in prison in California

The one that reigned in the independent cinema, and whose fall in 2017 led to the #Metoo Wave, was sentenced in 2020 for the assault of Miriam Haley and the violation of the aspiring actress Jessica Mann, a victory at that time for the movement against sexual violence against women.

But last year, the cancellation of the trial by the New York Court of Appeals, for procedural issues, was experienced as a step back to give the speech of the victims.

Harvey Weinstein, 73, remains arrested because he was also sentenced to California to 16 years in prison in another archive of sexual crimes.

It decreased by many health problems, he obtained to be able to sleep in the hospital, not in the cell, during this trial where he was resumed in New York.