New York prosecutors on Thursday dropped a charge of third-degree rape against Harvey Weinstein, after two juries were unable to reach a verdict on the allegation.
In a statement, the D.A.’s office said that the accuser, Jessica Mann, did not wish to testify at a fourth trial of the disgraced mogul.
“To be clear, we believe Ms. Mann’s account and her credibility as a witness,” Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “This has been an extraordinarily taxing ordeal for her, and she has never wavered while testifying in front of two grand juries and three trial juries over the course of eight years. We thank her for her honesty and her tremendous bravery.”
Mann submitted a statement to the court, saying that after the latest trial it became clear to her that she “could no longer endure going through this any longer.”
“In my fight to see justice, it has nearly stolen a decade of my life and put me through more harm than good,” she wrote. “Justice now has moved away from the courts, solely into the hands of God.”
Weinstein was convicted last year on a separate charge of sexual assault against Miriam Haley, a former “Project Runway” production assistant. Prosecutors said Thursday that they will ask Judge Curtis Farber to sentence him to 20 years in prison on that charge.
Weinstein was originally convicted of assaulting both Mann and Haley in 2020, but that verdict was overturned on a 4-3 vote by the state’s highest court in 2024. At the June 2025 retrial, Weinstein was convicted again of assaulting Haley, but the jurors could not reach a verdict on Mann’s allegation that he had raped her at a Manhattan hotel in 2013.
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
Prosecutors tried again in May, but the jury again could not reach a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial. Weinstein’s defense relied on a series of friendly text and email exchanges between Mann and Weinstein, arguing that they were involved in a consensual relationship.
“Harvey is relieved by today’s outcome,” said his spokesman, Juda Engelmayer. “We believe this is the result that should have been reached from the outset, had the grand jury been presented with the full scope of the emails, text messages and other private communications.”
Weinstein, 74, was originally sentenced in 2020 to 23 years in prison for the assaults on Haley and Mann, and has been in custody ever since. His lawyers will ask Farber to impose a lower sentence, arguing that he has been a model inmate.
Weinstein is also serving a 16-year sentence on a separate rape conviction in Los Angeles.
From Variety US