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 everything from her initial interactions with the ex-studio boss to her decision to get a lawyer and go public with her allegations as the #MeToo movement exploded in October 2017.

Defense lawyer Jennifer Bonjean quizzed Haley about why she stayed in touch with Weinstein after she rejected his sexual advances during a meeting in his hotel room at the Cannes Film Festival in France a few months before the alleged assault.

Haley, now 48, said she “found it humiliating” when Weinstein commented about her legs and suggested they give each other massages, but ultimately shrugged it off because she wanted his help getting work in show business.

“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,” Haley said.

Bonjean also sparred with the witness over statements she gave to the press when she went public in 2017, getting Haley to admit that she didn’t give a full picture of her interactions with Weinstein.

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She denied Bonjean’s suggestion that she spoke out in hopes of suing Weinstein, but acknowledged later filing a lawsuit and receiving a settlement of about $475,000.

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, the first of three accusers expected to testify, said Wednesday that she maintained contact with Weinstein for more than a year after she says he assaulted her at his Manhattan apartment in July 2006.

Haley testified that she flew 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 insisted she was pursuing professional opportunities and was never interested in a romantic or sexual relationship with him.

Bonjean pointed out Thursday that when Haley went public, 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.

Bonjean noted that Haley didn’t go to police until June 2018, but held a press conference with lawyer Gloria Allred just days after she saw media reports about other allegations against Weinstein.

Bonjean will step away from Weinstein’s defense team after she finishes questioning Haley. She has another case going to trial next week.

On Wednesday, under questioning by a prosecutor, Haley testified that Weinstein assaulted her after inviting her to his apartment for a friendly, professional meeting. She said he pushed her onto a bed, ignoring her pleas of: “No, no — it’s not going to happen.”

Afterward, she felt shocked and disgusted. She and two friends testified that she told them Weinstein had sexually assaulted her soon after.

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

Haley, briefly a production assistant on the Weinstein-produced “Project Runway,” said she had a series of interactions with him that were sometimes inappropriate and suggestive, but other times professional and polite, she told jurors.

Focusing on the Cannes meeting, Bonjean pressed Haley on what to make of the fact that, although she had little show business experience, she had secured a meeting with a top producer.

“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.

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.