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Harvey Weinstein and his lawyers, Alan Jackson (left) and Mark Werksman (right)
A lawyer for Harvey Weinstein told jurors Thursday that prosecutors’ case rides on a single theme: “Take my word for it,” repeating the phrase throughout a closing argument that cast the alleged victims as opportunists and liars unfairly targeting the former Hollywood titan.
“Take my word for it. Take my word for it. Five words that sum up the entirety of the prosecution’s case. Take my word for it,” Alan Jackson said Thursday. “Take my word for it that he showed up at my hotel room unannounced. Take my word for it that I showed up at his hotel room. Take my word for it that I didn’t consent. Take my word for it, that I said no.”
In a nearly four-hour argument punctuated by a 90-minute break, Jackson said the alleged victim identified as Jane Doe 1 lied on the witness stand when she testified that Weinstein raped her in her Beverly Hills hotel room in 2013. He said Jane Doe 2, whom Weinstein is accused of forcibly groping a day after he allegedly raped Jane Doe 1, never went up to Weinstein’s hotel room as she claims. He said Juls Bindi, the Hollywood masseuse identified in court as Jane Doe 3, embellished her account of an alleged groping under pressure from prosecutors. And he said Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who is Jane Doe 4 and the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), gave “a theatrical, overly dramatized performance” and lied on the witness stand because she’s embarrassed she had consensual “transactional sex” with Weinstein.
“It was a theatrical, overly dramatized performance. What you saw was an act. A pretty good act. But it had no basis in truth,” Jackson said. “It was almost like it was on cue, it was almost like it was rehearsed. Just because she cried the hardest or yelled the loudest, it does not change any of the facts.”
He said Siebel Newsom “cannot square in her mind the idea that she’s a successful, well educated, well-bred refined woman who had consensual sex with Harvey Weinstein in exchange for opportunity and access.”
“Regret is not the same thing as rape,” Jackson said. “And it’s important we make that distinction in this courtroom.”
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Jackson gave an emphatic, personal performance that repeatedly focused on a jury instruction that says jurors “should consider” disregarding witnesses if they believe they’ve lied or embellished something in their testimony. He also detailed what he described as serious problems in prosecutors’ case, from perceived conflicting testimony and manipulation through questioning to “missing witnesses” such as actor Mel Gibson and Bindi’s friend Sean Lourdes.
Prosecutors said earlier in trial that jurors would hear from them, but they never ended up calling either as a witness, just as they didn’t call purported supporting witnesses for Jane Doe 1 after indicating to jurors that they would.
Jackson pointed out attorney Gloria Allred in the gallery as he discussed a press conference she held in October 2017 with model Natassia Malthe, who is not a charged victim but testified in accordance with California Evidence Code section 1108, which allows testimony about a defendant’s “past sexual misconduct, alleged and otherwise, when they are currently on trial for a sex crime.”
Read all coverage of Weinstein’s trial here.
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