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A retrial in New York for disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who faces rape and sexual assault charges, is set to begin on Tuesday with jury selections.
After a flood of women came forward with damning allegations against the world-famous movie mogul, juries in New York and California found Weinstein guilty of sex crimes, with his accusers giving harrowing testimony at trial.
Weinstein appealed both convictions within weeks. Last April, an appeals court overturned his New York conviction, and now the 72-year-old is set to be tried again in a Manhattan courtroom, even as he remains behind bars for the Los Angeles charges. The trial is expected to last between four and six weeks.
Here’s a timeline of Weinstein’s legal battles.
October 5, 2017
Actresses and former employees accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct spanning decades in an explosive New York Times article. The list of accusers includes actress Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan. Weinstein denies that he sexually assaulted or raped anyone but offers an apology, telling the outlet: “I appreciate the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it. Though I’m trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go.”
In the following weeks, dozens of more women, including Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, come forward with similar allegations.
February 11, 2018
The New York Attorney General sues the Weinstein Company, which was owned by Weinstein and his brother Bob, for violations of the state’s human rights law and for using the business to “facilitate unlawful activities” related to the film producer’s harassment of employees. The brothers are also named in the suit.
The company files for bankruptcy one month later.
May 25, 2018
Authorities in New York arrest Weinstein on three charges: rape in the first and third degrees and criminal sexual act in the first degree related to two women. He posts $1 million bail and is released that day. He agrees to wear a GPS tracker and surrender his passport.
One of the women, Lucia Evans, alleges he forced her to perform oral sex during a 2004 encounter. The rape accuser is not publicly identified.
Days later, his lawyer calls the charges “absurd,” claiming Weinstein had a 10-year-long relationship with the woman he’s accused of raping.
May 31, 2018
A New York grand jury indicts the Hollywood powerhouse.
“This indictment brings the defendant another step closer to accountability for the crimes of violence with which he is now charged,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. says in a statement.
Weinstein’s encounters with both women were consensual and he “strongly denies” these accusations, his lawyer says.
Two days later, Weinstein pleads not guilty to the charges.
July 2, 2018
A Manhattan grand jury indicts the movie mogul on three additional charges related to allegations from two other women: two counts of predatory assault and an additional count of criminal sexual act in the first degree. He now faces a total of six counts.
“A Manhattan grand jury has now indicted Harvey Weinstein on some of the most serious sexual offenses that exist under New York’s penal law,” Vance Jr. says in a statement. “This indictment is the result of the extraordinary courage exhibited by the survivors who have come forward.”
The sex act charge stems from allegations brought by his former production assistant Miriam Haley, who claimed that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex in 2006 in his New York City apartment.
His attorney insists that the encounters were consensual and calls the allegations against his client false. Weinstein pleads not guilty to the new charges days later.
August 3, 2018
The disgraced film producer seeks to dismiss the criminal charges. His lawyers cite “extensive warm, complimentary and solicitous” emails from one of the rape accusers.
October 11, 2018
A judge dismisses one of the six counts against Weinstein — the one from Evans’ claim.
The top detective “failed to inform” the DA’s office about an account from Evans’ friend, who heard a different version of the alleged encounter from Evans, prosecutors say in a letter.
December 7, 2018
In another attempt to get the criminal case tossed, Weinstein’s lawyers point to an email that seemed to show that one of his rape accusers attended a film screening with him hours after the alleged incident.
“Why would an alleged rape victim go out of her way to spend time with her ‘rapist’ merely hours after she was allegedly attacked?” his lawyer asks.
Later that month, the judge rejects the defense team’s bid to get the case dismissed.
May 24, 2019
Weinstein reaches a $44 million tentative settlement to resolve civil suits brought by women in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada as well as the February 2018 civil suit filed by the Manhattan attorney general’s office against his company.
August 26, 2019
Following two additional charges of predatory sexual assault brought by New York prosecutors, Weinstein pleads not guilty. The new charges prompt the judge to delay his trial until January 2020 rather than September 2019.
December 11, 2019
The New York judge presiding over the movie mogul’s case raises his bail to $5 million after prosecutors say he mishandled his ankle monitor, causing it to stop working dozens of times.
Lawyers for Weinstein, who rolled into court using a walker, say he’s expected to undergo back surgery.
The same day, the film producer reaches a $25 million agreement to settle civil suits brought by accusers and the New York attorney general’s office. The agreement does not require him to admit wrongdoing.
January 6, 2020
Weinstein’s trial in New York begins.
Across the country, prosecutors in Los Angeles charge him with four counts of sexual assault stemming from allegations brought by two women related to separate 2013 encounters.
February 24, 2020
The jury deliberates for five days after hearing weeks of graphic testimony from six women — Haley, Jessica Mann, Dawn Dunning, Lauren Young, Tarale Wulff, and Annabella Sciorra.
The 12 jurors find him guilty of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree related to allegations involving Haley and Mann. The jury acquits him of the two counts of predatory sexual assault and rape in the first degree.
March 11, 2020
A judge sentences the disgraced producer to 23 years behind bars.
“He had crushed a part of my spirit. If he was not convicted of rape and sexual assault by this jury it would have happened again and again. I’m relieved there are women who are safer because he is not out there,” Haley says in her victim impact statement.
April 5, 2021
Weinstein appeals his two-count felony conviction. His lawyers ask for a new trial, alleging the judge and a juror were biased against him. They also claim that the jury shouldn’t have been able to hear testimony from witnesses whose allegations weren’t related to the charges he faced.
“Simply put, the prosecution tried Weinstein’s character not his conduct,” his attorneys write in the appeal.
July 21, 2021
Weinstein pleads not guilty to 11 charges in Los Angeles, including forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual battery. The charges stem from five individuals’ allegations. He appears in the courtroom in a wheelchair.
June 2, 2022
A New York appellate court upholds his conviction.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says prosecutors are “gratified by today’s decision, which upholds a monumental conviction that changed the way prosecutors and courts approach complex prosecutions of sexual predators.”
June 8, 2022
Police in the United Kingdom charge Weinstein with two counts of indecent assault stemming from an alleged 1996 encounter.
October 25, 2022
The Los Angeles trial begins, kicking off two months of testimony.
One month later, a judge drops four of the charges — two counts of forcible rape and two counts of forcible oral copulation – related to one woman’s account. He now faces seven counts.
December 19, 2022
A jury finds him guilty of three counts of rape and sexual assault all tied to one accuser known as Jane Doe 1, who accused him of rape in 2013 during a film festival. Jurors are hung on the remaining four counts.
February 23, 2023
A California judge sentences Weinstein to 16 years behind bars. He is ordered to serve the sentence after his 23-year term in New York ends.
The encounter with Weinstein “has broken me into a million pieces … there is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage,” the woman says in her victim impact statement.
The movie mogul pleaded with a judge. “I never raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1. I don’t know that woman and she doesn’t know me,” he says, before accusing the anonymous woman of fabricating a “made-up story” and of being able to “turn on the tears” because she’s an actress.
April 25, 2024
New York’s highest court overturns Weinstein’s conviction. In a 4-3 decision, the court ruled that the trial judge made “egregious errors” by allowing prosecutors to call witnesses whose allegations were not related to the charges leveled against him.
June 8, 2024
The movie producer files to appeal his California conviction. His attorneys claim he was not given “fair opportunity to defend against [Jane Doe 1’s] allegations.”
September 5, 2024
The U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service drops criminal proceedings against him.
September 12, 2024
New York prosecutors bring an additional charge against him. The new criminal sex act charge stems from an allegation that he forced oral sex on a woman at a Manhattan hotel in 2006. This woman, who has not been publicly identified, was not involved in his initial New York criminal case.
Six days later, he pleads not guilty to the new charge.
January 29, 2025
The movie mogul begs the judge to move up the start date of his retrial, citing his declining health.
“I won’t be there for April,” the 72-year-old said from his wheelchair. “I can’t hold on anymore. I’m holding on because I want justice for myself.”
He was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in October 2024. A month earlier, he underwent emergency heart surgery.
April 15, 2025
Weinstein is set to be retried on the rape and sex act charge in addition to the new charge. The trial is expected to span five weeks.
His lawyers have stressed that his previous case is irrelevant.
“We can take that transcript and all the judge’s rulings and throw them in the garbage,” one of his attorneys argued at a pretrial hearing in March. “That trial was declared illegal by the highest court in this state.”
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