Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers get their turn to question accuser Miriam Haley at #MeToo retrial

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ’s lawyers got their turn Thursday to question a woman who alleges the one-time Hollywood heavyweight held her down and forced oral sex on her nearly two decades ago.

Miriam Haley, testifying for a third day at Weinstein’s rape retrial, was grilled about details of her recollections — such as exactly how she once propped open an apartment building door — and the bigger picture of her story.

Defense lawyer Jennifer Bonjean underscored that Haley, who was then looking for entertainment production work, stayed in touch with Weinstein despite feeling humiliated when he complimented her legs and asked for a massage at a meeting a few months before the alleged 2006 assault.

“You understood these were sexual overtures?” Bonjean asked.

Haley said she did.

“You rebuffed them, and he still gave you his phone number, right?”

“Yes,” said Haley, who got a short gig on the Weinstein-produced “Project Runway” shortly after that meeting, which happened in his company’s hotel suite during the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.

Haley has repeatedly testified that she was pursuing only job opportunities, nothing else, from Weinstein.

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Bonjean also sparred with the witness over her decision to get a lawyer and hold a press conference airing her allegations as the #MeToo movement exploded in October 2017, fueled by other women’s claims that the Oscar-winning producer had sexually assaulted or harassed them.

Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty and denies sexually assaulting anyone. His lawyers argue that all of his accusers consented to sexual encounters in hopes of getting work in show business.

Haley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi, is the first of three accusers expected to testify at the retrial. She is reprising and adding some new details to testimony that led to Weinstein’s since-overturned 2020 conviction.

She testified Wednesday that Weinstein assaulted her after inviting her to his apartment for what she expected to be a friendly, professional meeting. She said he pushed her onto a bed, ignoring her pleas of: “No, no — it’s not going to happen.”

She and two friends testified that she told them soon after that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her.

Haley testified that she took a prearranged flight to Los Angeles on Weinstein’s dime the next day, and a few weeks later agreed to meet him at a Manhattan hotel. She said she had expected to talk in the lobby, but was instead directed to his room, where she says she had unwanted, but not forced, sex with him.

Even after that, Haley testified, she kept in touch, sometimes sending emails signed “Lots of love” to Weinstein and his assistant. She said that she was still trying to capitalize professionally on knowing Weinstein and that she “suppressed a lot of things” to cope with them.

Bonjean pointed out Thursday that when Haley went public in 2017, she didn’t mention her subsequent sexual encounter with Weinstein, nor their continued contact.

“You told the press only part of the story, correct?” Bonjean asked.

“I told the part that was relevant to what I was trying to share,” Haley said.

She denied Bonjean’s suggestion that she spoke out in hopes of suing Weinstein, though she later sued and got a roughly $475,000 settlement.

Focusing on the Cannes meeting, Bonjean pressed Haley on what to make of the fact that she had secured a meeting with a top producer while she had limited experience herself.

“So, as somebody in my position, I should have turned it down, is what you’re saying?” Haley shot back.

“I’m not saying you should have done anything,” Bonjean replied.

She will step away from Weinstein’s defense team to attend to another trial after she finishes questioning Haley, who is due back on the stand Friday.

Weinstein’s retrial includes charges related to Haley and another accuser from the original trial, Jessica Mann, who alleges Weinstein raped her in 2013. He’s also being tried, for the first time, for allegedly forcing oral sex on former model Kaja Sokola in 2006.

Mann and Sokola also are expected to testify.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they’ve been sexually assaulted unless they give permission for their names to be used. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so.