Saying ‘Me Too’ in an Empty Courtroom |
Harvey Weinstein?” the court-information officer repeated blankly when I asked for directions one morning — as if to say, “Are you sure?” Weinstein’s third New York trial had begun in Manhattan criminal court a week earlier without leaving much of an impression, even at the courthouse. There were no lines and few news cameras; far more people were camping outside the federal courthouse a few blocks away, where a soldier was pleading not guilty to using confidential information to bet on the ouster of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Surveying the empty pews in the room, I wondered if I was in the wrong place. Two seasoned court watchers assured me I wasn’t. (“Did I meet you at Diddy?” one asked.) When the once-feared mogul — now close-shaven and pale — was wheeled in from Rikers, there were fewer than ten spectators in the courtroom. Only a few more trickled in as testimony began.
Weinstein was the Ur-villain of the Me Too moment, the one everyone was supposed to agree on. The reporters who broke the stories about him shared a Pulitzer Prize; the women who put themselves on the line were named Time’s Person of the Year; actresses launched Time’s Up and linked arms with activists at the Oscars. The first Weinstein trial, in early 2020, was a veritable circus — celebrities held court and a flash mob chanted bilingual slogans in formation.
It’s been a long six years. In 2024, Weinstein convinced New York’s highest court that he’d been treated unfairly by prosecutors. He won a new trial, and a year later, when jurors couldn’t reach a decision on a rape charge, a judge ordered a third trial, this one. Weinstein still has no known defenders who are not on his payroll. But as his criminal cases have made their way through the system, much of the world has subtly shifted back in his favor. At minimum, many have moved on.
Jessica Mann has refused to. In court, I watched the former........