Weinstein Faces Sentencing Again in New York Sexual Assault Case

Harvey Weinstein is scheduled to be sentenced in New York on Wednesday for the sexual assault of a former television production assistant, more than six years after his first prison term in the case that became a landmark of the #MeToo movement.

Weinstein, 74, faces up to 25 years in prison for first-degree criminal sexual act against Miriam Haley at his Manhattan apartment in 2006. Manhattan prosecutors have said they will seek a 20-year sentence, which would keep him incarcerated into his late 80s. His defence lawyers have not indicated what term they will request. He has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone and has said he will appeal once sentenced.

The hearing marks another chapter in a legal process that has repeatedly returned to court. Weinstein was initially sentenced to 23 years in 2020 after being convicted of assaulting Haley and of raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. New York's highest court overturned those verdicts in 2024, finding that testimony from other women whose allegations were not part of the case had prejudiced the trial.

At a second trial last year, Weinstein was again convicted of first-degree criminal sexual act for assaulting Haley. The jury acquitted him of forcibly performing oral sex on Kaja Sokola and deadlocked on a rape charge involving Mann. A retrial on that charge ended in a hung jury in May, and prosecutors dropped it after Mann said she could not face testifying again, clearing the way for Wednesday's sentencing.

Haley, 49, who has also been known as Mimi Haleyi, is expected to speak at the hearing, according to her lawyer, Gloria Allred. Weinstein will also address the court, his spokesperson, Juda Engelmayer, said. Haley, born in Finland and raised in Sweden, worked briefly as a production assistant on the reality show "Project Runway," which Weinstein produced. She testified that she visited his apartment because she was due to fly to Los Angeles the next day on his company's ticket for a film premiere, and that he lunged at her, backed her into a bedroom and assaulted her despite her pleas to stop. She recounted the assault at two trials, telling the court last year, "The unthinkable was happening."

Weinstein has already served more than six years while his case moved through the courts. He is now held in a medical unit for jail inmates at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, after time in state prison and on Rikers Island. His lawyers have cited chronic myeloid leukemia, diabetes and mobility problems requiring a wheelchair, along with emergency surgery two years ago to remove fluid from around his heart and lungs.

He also awaits resentencing in a separate rape case in California. An appeals court there upheld his 2022 conviction but vacated his 16-year sentence because the judge had treated the New York convictions, later overturned, as an aggravating factor.