Ruth GreenWednesday 20 August 2025
The retrial of Harvey Weinstein in New York, which ended in June after the judge declared a mistrial, has highlighted the power imbalance in many sexual harassment and misconduct cases.
During the retrial, the Hollywood producer was found guilty on one count of criminal sexual assault but not guilty on a separate sexual assault charge. A verdict on a third charge – rape – was due to be returned later in the week, but the mistrial was declared after the jury foreman refused to continue deliberations, saying he felt bullied by another juror. Weinstein pled not guilty to the charge of rape. It’s now widely expected that he’ll face a third trial.
Weinstein was originally sentenced in New York in 2020 to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault. However, in spring 2024 the Appeals Court ruled that he didn’t receive a fair trial. It said the judge should not have allowed prosecutors to call witnesses during the trial to testify about allegations relating to prior acts that weren’t part of that case.
The 2025 retrial included charges from two claimants who had already brought allegations against Weinstein in 2020, but also a new charge filed by a different accuser in September 2024, which didn’t form part of the original trial.
There is often a power dynamic involved in these abuse cases and often a major inequality of wealth
Mark Stephens CBE
Co-Chair, IBA Human Rights Institute
Weinstein was found guilty of rape in a separate trial in California in 2022 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He is currently being held in custody on ill-health grounds and is receiving medical treatment in New York’s Rikers Island jail complex. His legal team have appealed in the case.
Zelda Perkins, Weinstein’s former assistant, told Global Insight that the case in New York again underscores how money and power can be used to exploit the legal system. ‘It’s a perfect illustration of where the law is being undermined,’ she says. ‘I know lots of lawyers would disagree and say it shows exactly how great the law is because he’s being given this opportunity to prove his innocence. The reality is the reason he has the ability to do this is because of money and power.’
Weinstein’s legal team declined Global Insight’s requests for comment.
Weinstein’s retrial took place in what’s becoming a ‘year of reckoning’ for the US entertainment industry in the courtroom. In July, the jury in the trial of musician and producer Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs delivered a mixed verdict, finding him guilty of transportation to engage in prostitution, but acquitting him of the most serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. The legal team representing Combs declared the verdict a ‘victory of all victories’.
Luz Nagle, former Co-Chair of the IBA Crimes Against Women Subcommittee, says this latest procedural setback in the Weinstein trial is an indictment of the legal system’s ability to hold sexual predators to account. ‘There was a lot of push – a lot of money spent – to bring the case back to trial,’ says Nagle. ‘With Weinstein a lot of people are also calling this a “win” [for Weinstein and his legal team] and the victims have been re-victimised.’
Mark Stephens CBE, Co-Chair of the IBA’s Human Rights Institute, agrees that the Weinstein case reflects the power imbalance that persists in many sexual harassment and misconduct cases, particularly where Hollywood’s deep pockets are concerned. ‘There is often a power dynamic involved in these abuse cases and often a major inequality of wealth,’ he says.
While Stephens, a media law partner at Howard Kennedy, says victims are typically looking to escape the environment in which the abuse took place and gain just enough money to tide them over, the reality is rather different for their alleged abusers. ‘What people who have been survivors are looking for is economic security,’ he says, ‘but the [abusers] will pay almost any price to maintain the fiction of their good reputation. They can afford law firms and lawyers. The individuals often cannot and that leads to an inequality of bargaining power.’
In the most recent trial, Weinstein’s legal team included an ‘A-list’ cast of lawyers, such as Arthur Aidala, who has huge clout in the entertainment industry, and Jennifer Bonjean, who spearheaded efforts to overturn Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction in 2021.
Nagle says the setback in the Weinstein trial also comes amidst growing pushback in the US against the #MeToo movement, which was triggered by revelations about sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein by Perkins and others in 2017. She says this has undoubtedly made the task of finding an impartial jury increasingly challenging and may have been a factor in why the jurors in the retrial failed to come to verdict on the third charge.
‘I see this Weinstein fiasco as part of this phenomenon that we have regressed as a society,’ she says. ‘We keep hearing these views that women should complain immediately’, if they experience or see abuse, she says, and that those who stand as witnesses in trials should have seen the misconduct for themselves, ‘but sexual assault is something that very often takes place behind closed doors.’
Image credit: Roy Grogan/AdobeStock.com