'A new day': Harvey Weinstein convicted, led away in cuffs   23%

Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and sexual assault against two women and led off to prison in handcuffs on Feb. 25 in what his foes hailed as a landmark moment for the legal system and a long-overdue reckoning for the man vilified as the biggest monster of the #MeToo era.

Lawyer: Hospitalized Weinstein is energized about appeal   50%

A hospitalized Harvey Weinstein was “upbeat” and “energized” about appealing his sexual assault and rape conviction, one of his lawyers said Tuesday as one of Weinstein's accusers said the verdict … Click to Continue »

Russian Women's Rights Activist Says Weinstein Conviction May Also Have Impact In Her Country   16%

Russian women's rights activist Zalina Marshenkulova has said the conviction of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein for sexual assault might have an effect on the attitude of abusers of women in Russia, but voiced skepticism about the possibility of similar court cases in her country.

The Atlantic Politics Daily: Namaste Trump Is a Sequel   11%

It’s Monday, February 24. In the rarest of rare outcomes, a jury convicted Harvey Weinstein today of sexually assaulting two women (but acquitted him on the most serious charge, predatory criminal assault).

In the rest of today’s newsletter: Trump at the Modi-o, part two. Plus: the Nevada caucus aftermath, and what happens if presidents refuse to leave office after their term ends.

*

« TODAY IN POLITICS »

(Francis Mascarenhas / Reuters)

The MAGA show heads to India.

The sight was surreal: President Donald Trump clasping hands with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both of them taking in the raucous chants of some 50,000 Indian Americans who came to a Houston football stadium late in September for an event (aptly) named “Howdy Modi!”

Who wouldn’t want to bask in a sequel?

Today, Trump joined Modi for “Namaste Trump,” a MAGA-style rally for the two leaders in the world’s largest cricket stadium, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Though Trump tied himself into knots trying to pronounce Hindi words—stumbling over chai as well as the name of the city in which the rally was held—he got the crowd he came for. More than 100,000 people filled out the stadium pews; another 100,000 lined the motorcade route.

The Trump-Modi bromance may have something to do with their populist, us-versus-them panache: Trump sought to implement a version of a Muslim ban; Modi has done basically just that. Trump blasts the press as “fake news”; Modi’s government has cracked down on unfavorable media outlets.

As intolerance and division in both societies erode their democracies, I fear that the leaders may reinforce each other’s worst instincts,” William J. Burns, a former deputy secretary of state, writes, worrying about the type of relationship that is developing between both countries.

Read his full essay.

—Saahil Desai

*

« SNAPSHOT »

(NASA / Handout via Reuters)

The NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson (photographed here at her desk at NASA’s Langley Research Center in 1966), died today at 101. That her role in the mythos of spaceflight wasn’t celebrated until her 90s is a reminder of “who gets left out of the stories America tells about its accomplishments,” Marina Koren writes.

*

« CAUCUS FOCUS »

(Jim Young / Reuters)

Nevada’s Democratic Party held its caucus on Saturday. If you’re still catching up on the results, we have the latest:

‣ “In the most diverse contest of the year, the most progressive candidate in the field won his biggest victory yet,” Russell Berman writes: Bernie Sanders’s victory in Nevada proved his staying power, following the first two primary contests in mostly white states.

‣ “Efforts to stop him so far have been ineffective and made the party seem out of touch,” Edward-Isaac Dovere writes: As Sanders rises, the Democratic establishment is weaker than it’s ever been.

‣ “The Nevada outcome could intensify the muddle in the middle that has prevented any centrist candidate from emerging as the principal alternative to Sanders.” Even if Joe Biden notches a win in South Carolina (he was second to Sanders in Nevada), too many moderates remain in the race for any of them to truly challenge Sanders on Super Tuesday, Ronald Brownstein writes.

+ There’s a key lesson centrists aren’t learning, Ibram X. Kendi argues.

*

« ARGUMENT OF THE DAY »

(THOMAS PEIPERT / AP / SHUTTERSTOCK / THE ATLANTIC)

“That a president would defy the results of an election has long been unthinkable; it is now, if not an actual possibility, at the very least something Trump’s supporters joke about.”

Here’s a hypothetical. Say it’s November 2020 and Trump has been defeated, thus bringing an end to his administration on January 20, 2021 (or say he’s reelected; his term would still end in January 2025). Say he then refuses to leave the White House. What then?

Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney, looks at all the ways such a crisis would play out.

*

« EVENING READ »

(Ben Childers)

Floods and Politics

Across Kentucky, floods are devouring rural communities. The catastrophe is out of sight, out of mind for many people living outside these areas, partly because the national news media are too quick to default to a “flyover country” attitude toward noncoastal towns, Silas House writes.

If coal mining isn’t devouring the mountain in front of your house, then it’s easy to leave all the lights on. If your home isn’t being carried away by floodwaters, it’s hard to feel the consequences of climate change. Folks in rural places aren’t immune to this disconnect. They say they care about the land, yet they often elect politicians who value profit over the environment. Rural voters’ support of Trump is widespread, even though he has been designated by several environmental groups as the “worst president in history.”

Read the rest.

*

Today’s newsletter was written by Saahil Desai, an editor on the Politics desk, and Christian Paz, a Politics fellow. It was edited by Shan Wang, who oversees newsletters.

You can reply directly to this newsletter with questions or comments, or send a note to politicsdaily@theatlantic.com.

Your support makes our journalism possible. Subscribe here.

Alleged No Longer  

“They are creating a universe in which they’re stripping adult women of common sense, autonomy, and responsibility,” Donna Rotunno, one of Harvey Weinstein’s defense attorneys, said during the closing arguments of her client’s criminal trial. She was taking aim, most directly, at the case’s prosecution. But she was also suggesting, in the cosmic sweep of her accusation, a broader indictment: of the #MeToo movement, and of the movement’s insistence that the blame for sexual violence lies not with its victims, but with its perpetrators.

The lawyer’s argument was flawed in many ways—chief among them, it failed, apparently, to persuade its intended audience. Yesterday, the jury in People of the State of New York v. Harvey Weinstein announced its verdict, after nearly 30 hours of deliberation: Weinstein is guilty, it concluded, on two of the five charges that were brought against him. The “alleged rapist” is now the “convicted rapist.” He faces up to 29 years in prison. That is expressly because, not in spite, of the “common sense, autonomy, and responsibility” demonstrated by the women who spoke during the trial.

For many observers—people who have lived through the Anita Hill testimony and the Christine Blasey Ford testimony and the election of Donald Trump—the Weinstein verdict came as a shock. “This was such a narrow legal hallway to walk down, and many of us braced ourselves for a not-guilty verdict,” Lauren Sivan, a journalist who has said that Weinstein masturbated in front of her, explained during a call with reporters yesterday. For others, the verdict was a symbol. “This is a new day,” Cyrus Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, who declined to prosecute Weinstein in 2015, told reporters just after the verdict was announced. Trump shared his own—deeply fraught—reactions to the verdict during a press conference today: “I think that, from the standpoint of women, I think it was a, uh, great thing. I think it was a, uh, it was a great victory.”

The men’s optimism was too easy; the verdict, after all, was split. The trial was harrowing for many of those who participated in it. (One witness, Jessica Mann, had an apparent panic attack while answering a particularly harsh string of questions under cross-examination.) Progress is hectic and occasionally cruel. “Don’t Tell Me to Be Happy About the Harvey Weinstein Verdict,” Molly Jong-Fast wrote in the Daily Beast. She had a point.

And yet: That verdict was progress. The trial that occasioned it was progress. Even the simple shift in language—alleged rapist to convicted rapist—is progress. Alleged, applied to Weinstein, was both necessary and just; he was, like any other person accused of a crime, innocent until he was proved guilty. But alleged can suggest balance when there is none. More than 90 women have made allegations of sexual misconduct against one man. During the trial, their number was reduced, effectively, to two.

It is hard to overstate the risk the Manhattan DA’s Office took in bringing forward the charges of those two women, Mann and Miriam Haley—specifically because they went on to have relationships with Weinstein after their assault. Juries (in, that is, the vanishingly rare times they are summoned for sexual-assault cases) have not traditionally understood that 81 percent of sexual assaults are committed by people already known to the victims. Nor have juries traditionally understood the complicated dynamics that can keep survivors tethered to those who did them harm. Assaults committed by strangers, their victims screaming and clawing and fighting back until they can fight no more: This is the narrow view many Americans, and consequently many American juries, have had of rape. This is the mythology that the prosecution was taking on.

Myths are stubborn things. One consequence of living in a culture that remains loath to discuss sex, in schools or in courtrooms, is that it loses the capacity to talk about sex. Its language suffers, and its empathic imagination suffers along with it. Jeffrey Marsalis, accused of drugging and raping 10 women, was acquitted of rape by two Philadelphia juries after they learned that many of those women maintained contact with him after the assaults. (It took a third trial to convict him—this one involving a woman who had gone straight to the police with her claim.) The radio host Jian Ghomeshi was acquitted on assault charges in part because some of his accusers withheld information about the contact they maintained with him after the alleged assaults. Assaults, when they occur, take place in a social context; many discussions about assault, however, ignore that fact.

One of the remarkable elements of the Weinstein trial is the extent to which the women themselves wrestled, in public, with the myths. “I thought he was a nice person; I thought he was an okay guy,” Annabella Sciorra, who accused Weinstein of raping her in her New York City apartment in the mid-’90s, said on the stand. “At the time, I thought rape was something that happened in the dark, in a back alley, something a stranger did to you with a gun to your head.” Haley testified that she had sex with Weinstein just weeks after he forced oral sex on her, and continued a correspondence with him well after that. Haley was trying to “almost normalize the situation,” the assistant district attorney Meghan Hast told the jury—to reclaim what had happened to her. To convince herself that the world she had occupied before her assault was the same one she inhabited after it. Hast and her colleagues were hoping that the jury would empathize with that impulse.

Trials are blunt instruments. And the basic facts of this one were not, fundamentally, what was being adjudicated as the prosecution and the defense sparred. That the actions in question—oral sex, penetrative sex—had taken place was generally agreed upon; the real question at hand was whether the sex had been consensual. The facts at play, here, were matters of mind-set. The defense attempted to prove that Weinstein understood the encounters to be consensual, if transactional. This was a trial, in large part, about whether Weinstein assaulted one woman and raped another during incidents in 2006 and 2013, respectively. As it played out, though, its proceedings asked questions that remain perennial when sexual violence is concerned: whose perspective matters. Who is deemed believable. Who is assumed to bear the blame.

But when juries allow that no victim is “perfect”—when they expand their notions of what sexual violence actually looks like—the questions can become more nuanced and reflective of lived experience. Many of the women who took the stand described seizing up rather than fighting back. They described the feel of Weinstein’s weight over them, his strength, the power he wielded both physically and otherwise. He used his rage as a weapon, they suggested. But he weaponized his indifference too. “He, you know, told me not to make a big deal about it,” said Dawn Dunning, while testifying that Weinstein put his hand up her skirt and attempted to penetrate her with his finger during what she had assumed to be a business meeting. She did not tell anybody what happened. On the stand during the trial, she explained why: “I was embarrassed,” Dunning said. “I wanted to pretend like it didn’t happen. I just—I didn’t want to be a victim.”

Dunning was describing what it’s like to live in a world that arranges itself around the whims of powerful men. She was describing the world, in other words, that still exists—a world whose laws are biased toward the privileged, and a world that is much better at talking about justice than truly enacting it. Yesterday was not “a new day,” as Vance claimed. It was, however, a day that found 12 people doing something that some other juries have done as well: appreciating that sexual violence is far more complicated than American law, and American culture, have admitted. And then reflecting that nuance in their verdict. Believe women has been a slogan and a correction and an extremely modest rallying cry. Now it is precedent. Now more progress might be made. The jury took the women, at least in part, at their word. And Weinstein “will forever be guilty,” Tarana Burke, the founder of the movement that the now-convicted rapist unintentionally helped expand, said yesterday. “That’s a thing we have.”

'You messed with the wrong women,' say Weinstein accusers, turning sights to LA   50%

Some of the more than 80 women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct said on Tuesday they are looking to the disgraced producer's trial in Los Angeles to build on what they called a seismic shift in attitudes signaled by his conviction in New York.

Testimony alleging past Weinstein sexual assaults bolstered difficult case   13%

In order to secure the rape and sexual assault convictions that will send Harvey Weinstein to prison, prosecutors called a parade of witnesses who portrayed the former Hollywood producer as a man who abused his power to prey on younger women.

After a Four Seasons breakfast, Harvey Weinstein sent to dank New York jail   -26%

Harvey Weinstein's day began with expensive coffee and Acqua Panna mineral water at a breakfast meeting with his lawyers in a Four Seasons hotel near Manhattan's criminal courts.

Weinstein found guilty of sexual assault, rape, in victory for #MeToo movement   13%

Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted of sexual assault and rape in a New York court on Monday and taken off to jail in handcuffs, a victory for the #MeToo movement that inspired women to publicly accuse powerful men of misconduct.

Timeline: The Harvey Weinstein story - From studio to courtroom in 40 years   43%

Here is a timeline recounting 40 years in the life of Harvey Weinstein, 67, once one of Hollywood's most powerful executives, convicted on Monday of sexual assault and rape. He faces up to 25 years in prison.

Key moments from Harvey Weinstein's trial   16%

Here are key moments from the trial of former movie producer Harvey Weinstein, who was convicted on Monday of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi and raping onetime aspiring actress Jessica Mann.

Actresses and activists react to Harvey Weinstein verdict   10%

Celebrities and activists welcomed the guilty verdict against Harvey Weinstein, the Academy Award-winning producer who had reigned as one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood.

After conviction, Weinstein has roadmap for appeal   13%

Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's conviction on charges of sexual assault and rape marks the end of his New York trial, but is likely the beginning of a long legal battle in the appeals courts.

'Just the beginning,' activists say after cheering Weinstein guilty verdict  

The guilty verdict in the sexual assault case against Harvey Weinstein on Monday energized Hollywood celebrities and activists who said it was just the start of their movement to hold abusers accountable.

Weinstein jury deadlocked on most serious sexual assault charges   5%

The jury in Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault trial in New York said on Friday they were deadlocked on the most serious criminal charges and suggested they were unanimous on the others leveled against the former Hollywood mogul.

Allegations against Weinstein changed everything, says 'Salinger' star Sigourney Weaver   25%

The cascade of allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein, currently being tried on charges of rape and sexual assault, has "changed everything" for women in the film world, actress Sigourney Weaver said on Friday.

Jurors in Weinstein trial focus on 'Sopranos' actress Sciorra   16%

New York jurors weighing rape and sexual assault charges against former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein ended their third day of deliberations by asking on Thursday to review testimony from actress Annabella Sciorra.

Weinstein stays at hospital a day after his sexual assault conviction   25%

Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein was receiving medical attention at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on Tuesday, his spokesman said, a day after a New York jury convicted him of sexual assault and rape in a stunning victory for the #MeToo movement.

'Upbeat' Harvey Weinstein at Manhattan hospital, a day after sex crimes conviction   20%

An "upbeat" Harvey Weinstein on Tuesday spent his first full day at a Manhattan hospital, his lawyer said, a day after the former Hollywood movie producer was convicted of sexual assault and rape.

Harvey Weinstein news: Celebrity accusers welcome guilty verdict as he faces up to 29 years in jail for rape   25%

The jury presiding over Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault trial announced it reached a verdict on Monday after having initially indicated it was split on the top charges against the disgraced Hollywood film producer.

Weinstein accusers say disappointing verdict falls short of true, full justice   -50%

A group of Harvey Weinstein accusers have criticised the jury for not finding him guilty of all five charges.

Weinstein's enablers: how associates helped him silence accusers for years   -25%

With 105 women having levelled accusations against him, how he managed to avoid trouble for decades is now a burning issue

As the dust settles over the Harvey Weinstein trial, following the disgraced movie mogul’s conviction in New York for rape and a criminal sex act that could see him put behind bars for up to 29 years, a looming question remains: how did he evade justice for so long?

Miriam Haley, a then Project Runway production assistant on whom Weinstein, 67, forced oral sex at his SoHo apartment, was attacked in 2006. Dawn Dunning, an aspiring actor who Weinstein lured to the InterContinental hotel in Manhattan then offered her movie roles on the condition she had a threesome with him and another woman, endured that humiliation in 2004.

The Weinstein verdict is a huge win for #MeToo but what's next? | Jill Filipovic   -5%

The criminal justice system is an imperfect venue for many cases. It’s time to consider what a more just future looks like

I’ll admit it, I’m shocked: Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape.

Yes, Weinstein was acquitted of the two most serious charges leveled against him: predatory sexual assault is a class-A felony. But the crimes he was convicted of are extremely serious, and Weinstein now faces as long as 25 years in prison. He’s also facing additional charges in Los Angeles.

With Harvey Weinsteins conviction, the old excuses no longer apply | Hadley Freeman   -12%

The movie mogul’s predatory behaviour was said to be ‘just the way the industry works’. Now, finally, that may change

Memories of some of my encounters with Harvey Weinstein over the past two decades, just off the top of my head: September 2006, arriving at the New York fashion show for the fashion label Marchesa, co-run by Weinstein’s now ex-wife Georgina Chapman. Weinstein prowled around the front row, crossing off a name on his list every time a famous actress arrived to watch the show. (Several actresses have since said Weinstein “bullied” them into wearing Marchesa to high-profile events.)

In 2011, hiding in a bathroom in LA to get away from Weinstein because he blamed me personally for an article in the Guardian’s business section that had reported financial difficulties at his company. In 2012, being called by one of Weinstein’s myriad assistants, when I was again in Los Angeles to cover the Oscars, to say that Weinstein had personally banned me from various restaurants because of “unfriendly” Guardian coverage. No specific date, as this was pretty much a constant over the past two decades: laughing knowingly with other journalists about how if we gave anything other than glowing coverage to his films, or actors in his films, Weinstein would ban us from his film screenings and threaten to pull advertising from our publications.

Rikers Island, Harvey Weinstein's new home, is a byword for prison brutality   13%

Disgraced Hollywood mogul due to transfer to the notorious New York prison as he awaits sentence for rape and sexual assault

Harvey Weinstein, feted for decades at Hollywood parties and galas, is set to become one of about 7,000 people held at the notorious Rikers Island jail in New York.

Related: Harvey Weinstein tried to silence and blame victims. At trial it no longer worked

US briefing: Weinstein guilty, Covid-19 spreads and Kobe remembered   15%

Tuesday’s top story: Harvey Weinstein facing fresh charges in Los Angeles after New York conviction. Plus, how nature saved a writer from addiction

Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.

Harvey Weinstein tried to silence and blame victims. At trial it no longer worked   21%

Disgraced producer’s old-style attacks proved ineffective after victims spoke in the landmark #MeToo trial

When the end came, there was no walking frame to lean on for Harvey Weinstein. As he was led away to spend the first of what promises to be many nights in a jail cell, he had to hobble along unaided with his arms handcuffed before him.

For the seven long weeks of his trial, the disgraced movie mogul had begun every day trundling into court behind his faithful trademark walker, with its incongruous fittings of two yellow tennis balls glued to its legs.

Harvey Weinstein to face charges in Los Angeles after guilty verdict in New York   13%

LA case, announced before Manhattan trial began, focuses on charges for two alleged attacks over two days

The verdict in the New York case against Harvey Weinstein is only the beginning of the movie mogul’s prosecution, with separate charges filed against the disgraced producer in Los Angeles.

In the most high-profile trial of the #MeToo movement yet, a New York jury on Monday found Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape for an attack in a New York hotel and guilty of a criminal sex act for forcing oral sex on a former television production assistant. The fallen titan of Hollywood, who was taken away in handcuffs, could face 25 years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender.

Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape video   -10%

One of Hollywood's most powerful men, Harvey Weinstein, has been found guilty of rape at his trial in New York. The jury found Weinstein guilty of a criminal sex act in the first degree for forcing, and also convicted him of rape in the third degree

• Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape at New York trial

Harvey Weinstein convicted in rape trial, faces long prison term   40%

Harvey Weinstein was convicted Monday of rape and sexual assault against two women and could be sent to prison for decades, sealing his dizzying fall from powerful Hollywood studio boss to villain of

New York jury in Weinsteins rape trial hints deadlock over top charge   22%

The jury in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial hinted it was struggling to reach an agreement on the most serious charge of predatory sexual assault as day four of deliberations ended Friday without

Opera icon Placido Domingo apologizes to sexual harassment accusers   17%

The Spanish tenor Placido Domingo says he takes full responsibility for his actions after being accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior. It comes after Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of sexual assault.

Harvey Weinstein taken to hospital after being found guilty   43%

Once one of Hollywood's most powerful producers, Harvey Weinstein has been convicted in a New York court of sexual assault and rape.

'Jekyll and Hyde': What you need to know about the Weinstein verdict  

The scandal that rocked Hollywood is reaching its final act with the trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Tablet interactive: 'Jekyll and Hyde': What you need to know about the Weinstein verdict  

The scandal that rocked Hollywood is reaching its final act with the trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

After Four Seasons breakfast, a dank jail cell for Harvey Weinstein   -20%

Harvey Weinstein’s day began with expensive coffee and Acqua Panna mineral water at a breakfast meeting with his lawyers in a Four Seasons Hotel near Manhattan’s criminal courts.It was to end at New York’s violence-plagued Rikers Island jail complex, where the former Hollywood film producer was ordered to await sentencing after a jury found him guilty on Monday of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another.Weinstein, however, was diverted for unspecified reasons to Manhattan’s Bellevue…

Harvey Weinstein convicted of sexual assault, in landmark #MeToo moment   26%

Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein was convicted of sexual assault and rape by a New York jury on Monday and handcuffed in court, a milestone verdict for the #MeToo movement that inspired women to go public with misconduct allegations against powerful men.Once one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers, Weinstein, 67, was convicted of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping Jessica Mann, a one-time aspiring actress, in 2013.Weinstein was acquitted on…

The Weinstein Trials Imperfect, Moving Conclusion   -50%

Naomi Fry writes about the verdict in the Harvey Weinstein trial in New York, at which the producer was found guilty of two sex crimes.

The Reporting That Led to Harvey Weinsteins Trial and Conviction   -50%

Erin Overbey introduces a selection of coverage on the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who was found guilty of felony sex crime and third-degree rape, including Ronan Farrow’s groundbreaking report, which helped usher in the #MeToo era.

Beyond Weinstein conviction, how #MeToo changed America   12%

A very public reckoning today for Harvey Weinstein will likely ripple through many more private lives.