Weinstein faces fresh trial over 2013 rape in Manhattan hotel

New York

After years of #MeToo infamy, legal peril and prison, Harvey Weinstein is again going on trial on a rape charge in New York City. Jury selection is set to start as early as Tuesday in the onetime movie mogul's latest retrial, where jurors will weigh — for the third time — whether he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013. But “it's not going to be a mirror image of the last trial,” new Weinstein lawyer Marc Agnifilo told Judge Curtis Farber last month.

This time, jurors will weigh only one charge based on one accuser, rather than the array of allegations that were aired at Weinstein's previous trials in New York and Los Angeles.

The Oscar-winning producer denies all the accusations and declared in court this winter that he had “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.” The judge has indicated he might revisit some rulings about exactly what evidence gets presented about Weinstein's and Mann's years of interactions. And Weinstein's recent change in attorneys could shift the trial's tenor and tactics.

Agnifilo and his partners took on the case only in February, when longtime Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala stepped aside from the retrial to focus on the former studio boss's appeals and civil matters. Both Aidala and Agnifilo are well-known New York defense attorneys, but their litigation styles differ. Aidala is folksy, while Agnifilo is more buttoned-up.

Weinstein wielded significant clout in the entertainment industry, having built his reputation on such critical and popular hits as “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.” He also became a prominent Democratic donor. Then a series of sexual harassment and sex assault allegations against Weinstein began to emerge in news media in 2017, propelling the #MeToo movement.