NEW YORK — After five weeks of testimony from Harvey Weinstein ’s accusers and other prosecution witnesses at his sex crimes retrial, his defense has started presenting its own witnesses. But it’s unclear whether the ex-studio boss himself will be one of them.
He’s due to decide by end of court Thursday whether to testify. If he does, it would be a remarkable twist — and potentially risky legal move — in the yearslong saga of the onetime Hollywood honcho-turned-#MeToo outcast.
Weinstein, 73, is being retried on rape and sexual assault charges because New York’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction. He denies the allegations, and his attorneys maintain that anything that happened between him and his accusers was consensual.
Weinstein didn’t testify at his original trial. Many defendants in criminal cases don’t.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees that they don’t have to. Jurors are told that they can’t hold such silence against defendants and that it’s up to prosecutors to prove their case; defendants do not need to prove anything. If defendants do take the stand, they open themselves to pointed questioning from prosecutors.
Weinstein’s lawyers began calling witnesses late Wednesday, starting with a physician-pharmacist discussing a medication that had come up in testimony.
In the weeks prior, the defense asked plenty of questions aimed at raising doubts about the credibility and accuracy of what jurors were hearing from prosecution witnesses, particularly Weinstein’s three accusers in the case.
Two of the women allege that he forcibly performed oral sex on them, separately, in 2006. The third says he raped her in 2013.
All three were trying to build careers in show business and say he preyed on them by dangling work prospects.