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Jessica Mann, the accuser in Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape retrial, returned to court Friday after telling the judge she was struggling to focus and finished five days of testimony marked by tense questioning and periods of emotional strain. Mann, 40, told jurors that she was “not doing too good right now” and that she was “really trying to remember,” adding, “I feel like I said a lot, and I’m trying to get through this.”
As the day continued, Mann responded to hours of questions while at times seeming exhausted and asking for queries to be repeated. She ended the day during prosecutors’ second round of questioning with her head propped on her left hand and weeping as she said she was being “as truthful and transparent as I can possibly be.”
The case is the third trial connected to Mann’s allegation that Weinstein forced himself on her during a 2013 encounter in a New York hotel room. Weinstein, 73, has denied the accusation, with his lawyers saying that what happened was consensual and that it was part of what they characterize as a four-year, caring relationship.
Mann’s testimony comes after a prior conviction in 2020 was overturned by an appeals court. Jurors at a retrial last year stopped deliberating on the rape charge after a foreperson refused to participate further, leaving the case unresolved and prompting the ongoing re-retrial.
During Friday’s session, Weinstein’s lawyer Teny Geragos returned Mann to questions about communications she exchanged with Weinstein. Mann was taken back through emails and messages sent to or about Weinstein over the years, including a May 2013 text to a friend in which she said, “I like the Harvey we know. I feel some sense of protection.” Mann also told jurors that she felt Weinstein protected her at times as she navigated the movie industry.
Prosecutors also sought to address Mann’s recollection of events and dates as she described the alleged assault. Mann testified that she continued a relationship with Weinstein on and off after the early 2013 meeting, and she told the court that she loved “a part of him” and “always tried to see the good in him,” while saying she was wary of crossing a well-connected man who she testified boasted that “his enemies don’t step a foot in this town.”
On Friday, Mann was additionally asked about a reflective note she wrote to herself two days after the alleged assault. Weinstein’s lawyers have emphasized that the note, which was not mentioned at Weinstein’s earlier trials, discusses Mann’s emotional attachment to a man she did not name and her conflicted feelings about their nonexclusive relationship, including the question: “Do I love him or the idea of him?” Mann testified that the note did not mention any alleged sexual assault, and when asked why, she paused and said: “I don’t have to write that down.”
As questioning neared its end, prosecutor Nicole Blumberg sought to cement Mann’s account. “Are those details clear in your mind as you sit here today?” Blumberg asked. Mann answered, “I remember,” and after prosecutors said there were no more questions, she walked out of the courtroom sobbing.