Harvey Weinstein was sentenced on 23 September to 15 years in prison for oral rape on former "Project Runway" production assistant Miriam Haley at his Manhattan apartment in 2006.

Justice Curtis Farber of Manhattan Supreme Court imposed the term more than a year after a jury convicted the 74-year-old former film producer of first-degree criminal sexual act at his June 2025 retrial. The charge carried a maximum of 25 years.

New York's highest court threw out Weinstein's original conviction and 23-year sentence in April 2024, ruling that the trial judge had wrongly let women whose allegations were not charged testify against him. Weinstein has already served more than six years in custody.

"Having been sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein has had a devastating effect on my life and sense of security that may never go away. Making the decision to speak up will have me looking over my shoulder for years to come," Haley said.

"It's a life sentence for me," she added.

Haley said she had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and had spent seven years feeling as though she were the one on trial.

Farber told Weinstein he "threw it all away by assaulting Miriam Haley."

Weinstein appeared in court in a wheelchair. He said he had "remorse for Miriam Haley's pain" but maintained his innocence, and told the court he had been treated worse than an animal in custody.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office sought 20 years. Defence lawyer Jacob Kaplan asked for three years beyond time served, citing Weinstein's health: chronic myeloid leukaemia, congestive heart failure, diabetes and kidney disease.

Weinstein has been hospitalised six times since 2025 and is held at Bellevue Hospital. He plans to appeal, according to the Associated Press.

The June 2025 retrial jury acquitted Weinstein of forcing oral sex on Kaja Sokola in 2002 and deadlocked on a third-degree rape count brought by Jessica Mann. A third trial on Mann's count ended in a hung jury in May, and Bragg's office dropped the charge on 25 June after Mann said she could not endure a fourth.

Weinstein still faces resentencing in Los Angeles. On 26 June, California's 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld his 2022 conviction for rape and two counts of sexual assault but threw out his 16-year sentence, ruling that the trial judge had improperly weighed the overturned New York convictions against him.

Black Cube and Ehud Barak

Black Cube, a Tel Aviv private intelligence firm founded in 2010 by former Israeli intelligence officers, worked for Weinstein in 2016 and 2017 to keep sexual abuse allegations against him out of print, Ronan Farrow reported in The New Yorker on 6 November 2017. A contract signed in July 2017 set the explicit goal of stopping publication of the allegations, according to the Times of Israel's account of the reporting.

Weinstein made a first payment of $100,000 on 28 October 2016 and was eventually invoiced $600,000, NPR reported. The terms included a $300,000 fee for blocking a New York Times article and $50,000 for obtaining the memoir actress Rose McGowan was writing. McGowan has accused Weinstein of rape.

An operative using the names "Anna" and "Diana Filip" posed as a women's rights advocate at a London wealth management firm, befriended McGowan and secretly recorded their conversations. She was a former Israel Defense Forces officer, and Farrow later identified her as Stella Penn Pechanac.

David Boies, whose firm Boies Schiller Flexner signed the Black Cube contract while also representing the New York Times, said: "Had I known at the time that this contract would have been used for the services that I now understand it was used for, I would never have signed it or been associated in any way with this effort." The Times described his conduct as "a grave betrayal of trust" and dropped the firm on 7 November 2017.

Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister and defence minister, referred Weinstein to Black Cube, the Times of Israel reported on 8 November 2017. Barak's spokesperson said he had only confirmed that Black Cube was "likely" the firm Weinstein had heard about and had not known the firm was hired by Weinstein or for what purpose. Black Cube said its work was always legal. A federal judge dismissed McGowan's racketeering suit against Weinstein, Boies, Black Cube and others in 2021. No reporting has shown any Israeli government role in the engagement.

Barak invested $1.5 million in the 2015 seed round of Reporty, later renamed Carbyne, with much of the capital supplied by Epstein, the Times of Israel reported in July 2019. Barak acknowledged visiting Epstein's Manhattan homes and his Caribbean island. "I never attended a party with him. I never met Epstein in the company of women or young girls," Barak said. No public reporting has linked the Black Cube referral to Barak's dealings with Epstein.

Weinstein spoke about Israel at The Algemeiner's gala in New York on 18 September 2017, 17 days before the New York Times published its first investigation into allegations against him.

"I am an Israeli in my heart and mind," Weinstein said. "I love that country, I love what it stands for, I am proud to be Jewish."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center gave Weinstein its Humanitarian Award in 2015. He and his company had given the centre nearly $100,000, and on 9 October 2017 the centre said withdrawing the award had not been under discussion.

Donald Trump and the National Enquirer

Donald Trump, then president, spoke to reporters outside the White House on 7 October 2017, two days after the Times investigation. "I've known Harvey Weinstein for a long time. I'm not at all surprised to see it," he said. Asked to compare the allegations with his own 2005 "Access Hollywood" remarks, he said: "That's locker room."

"I was never a fan of Harvey Weinstein," Trump said at a news conference in New Delhi on 25 February 2020, the day after a jury first convicted Weinstein in New York. "I knew him a little bit, not very well. I knew him because he was in New York." He said Weinstein had promised to work to defeat him in 2016 and had given "tremendous money to the Democrats."

Dylan Howard, chief content officer of National Enquirer publisher American Media Inc (AMI), ordered staff to gather damaging material on McGowan and met Weinstein with his lawyers and private investigators, Farrow wrote in his book "Catch and Kill", published in October 2019. "I want dirt on that bitch," Howard said, according to Farrow. An AMI spokesperson said Farrow's stories were "completely untrue."

AMI admitted in a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Manhattan, disclosed on 12 December 2018, that it paid former Playboy model Karen McDougal $150,000 "in concert with" Trump's campaign to suppress her account of an affair with Trump before the 2016 election. Trump has denied the affair.

Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor emeritus, consulted for Weinstein's criminal defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman in 2018 on Weinstein's attempt to recover emails from the bankrupt Weinstein Company, which Weinstein said would allow him to "exonerate himself." Dershowitz wrote in a declaration to the Delaware bankruptcy court in May 2018: "I have agreed to consult on the specific issue of Mr. Brafman's access to his client's personal and business emails."

Dershowitz was admitted in February 2019 to a federal class action accusing Weinstein, The Weinstein Company, Miramax and Disney of violating sex trafficking laws, again to advise on constitutional questions about email correspondence. "Weinstein has not hired me. I was retained by his original lawyer, Ben Brafman, to consult with Brafman on the constitutional issue around the case," Dershowitz told The Harvard Crimson.

Dershowitz was part of the legal team that negotiated Epstein's 2007 federal non-prosecution agreement, under which Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to two Florida state charges including procuring a minor for prostitution.

Virginia Giuffre accused Dershowitz of sexually abusing her while she was trafficked by Epstein. Dershowitz denied it, and the two sued each other for defamation. Both dropped their claims in November 2022, when Giuffre said: "I now recognize I may have made a mistake in identifying Mr. Dershowitz." Their joint statement said no money was paid. Giuffre died in April 2025.

Jeffrey Epstein

Weinstein told The Hollywood Reporter, in an interview from Rikers Island published on 11 March 2026, that he "maybe ran into" Epstein "once or twice." "He didn't travel in my circles. We certainly were not friends," he said. He called the crimes Epstein was charged with "really awful" and said: "They're nothing at all like mine."

Mort Zuckerman, Michael Wolff, Donny Deutsch and Nelson Peltz joined Epstein and Weinstein in a 2003 investor bid for New York magazine. The group's $44 million offer lost to Bruce Wasserstein.

Epstein and Weinstein both attended Princess Beatrice's 18th birthday party at Windsor Castle in July 2006, the Daily Beast reported in March 2020. The same report said a message pad recovered from Epstein's rubbish during the 2005 Palm Beach police investigation listed "Harvey," and that a phone belonging to Epstein's assistant Sarah Kellen called a Miramax number on 3 October 2005.

Jared Kushner, then publisher of The New York Observer, invited Epstein to the paper's 25th anniversary party on 14 March 2013, according to emails from Epstein's estate released by the House Oversight Committee on 12 November 2025. Guests listed for the event included Weinstein and his then wife Georgina Chapman, Donald Trump and Ivanka Trump. The emails do not show whether Epstein attended.

Brad Edwards, a lawyer for Epstein victims, wrote in his 2020 memoir "Relentless Pursuit" that Epstein accused Weinstein of trying to sexually assault "one of his favorite girls" in France. Weinstein's lawyer at the time, Imran Ansari, told the Daily Beast the book offered personal anecdotes rather than hard evidence. Edwards also said Epstein introduced his client Chauntae Davies to Weinstein, which led to an audition for a Dimension Films production.

"how bad does the harvey weinstein story get?" Epstein wrote to Brad Karp, then chairman of the law firm Paul Weiss, on 6 October 2017, in emails reported by The 19th in February 2026. Karp wrote back that it was "pretty bad" and getting "a little bit worse every day."

Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel, wrote to Epstein on 10 October 2017: "Whoever was not harassed by Harvey Weinstein must feel offended!" Epstein wrote back: "no worry, that means only grandmothers. wait, its not all out yet".

Peggy Siegal, a publicist who ran awards campaigns for Weinstein films, received an email from Epstein on 21 November 2017 listing four men then accused of sexual misconduct, Charlie Rose, Weinstein, Brett Ratner and Louis CK: "charlie, harvey , brett. louis. . jeffrey is looking better and better L:)"

FBI records released by the Justice Department in early 2026 include anonymous tips alleging misconduct by Weinstein. In one, a woman said "Epstein told her to give Weinstein a massage," during which she was asked to remove her shirt and refused. The tips are unverified. Weinstein's representatives said: "This is an unverified FBI tip, not a finding, not sworn testimony, and not evidence of anything. Mr Weinstein denies the conduct described." No direct correspondence between Weinstein and Epstein has surfaced in the released files, HuffPost reported in March 2026.