Guilty Harvey Weinstein’s sinister vow of revenge in rare jail interview before latest conviction

Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of sexual assault – an outcome he recently told the Daily Mail puts his failing health ‘in jeopardy.’

After a retrial on rape and sexual assault charges before a New York Supreme Criminal Court jury in Manhattan, which lasted over a month, he was convicted Wednesday afternoon.

The disgraced Hollywood producer was found guilty of sexually assaulting his former assistant but not guilty of forcing oral sex on a teenage model – jurors have not yet reached a verdict on a third charge.

Weinstein, 73, now faces at least 10 years longer in jail – though, the vengeful movie mogul is not going quietly.

He remains incarcerated in a special unit of a New York City hospital, cancer-stricken and desperate to clear his name before the disease claims his life.  

Once convicted and now trying to overturn that judgement, Weinstein maintains his innocence, insistent that he was the #MeToo movement’s sacrificial lamb.

Riddled with leukemia and subsisting on rancid cereal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, he is not sure how long he has left.

And during a rare interview with the Daily Mail in early June, he revealed his dying wish: to get revenge on the Hollywood elites he believes wronged him. 

Harvey Weinstein hopes he can live long enough to emerge from jail and take revenge on the long list of accusers he feels have wronged him

He admits that he ‘hurt his family’ and ‘cheated’ on ex-wife Georgina Chapman, who found new love with Hollywood actor Adrien Brody.

But Weinstein maintains that he’s not a monster or a criminal, and is hellbent on taking down the people he says turned him into a pariah. 

Among those in his sights are Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson and The New York Times journalists who set off his downfall. 

‘I’ve been festering lately about this,’ he said of the famous October 2017 report that triggered his fall from grace, admitting being locked up gave him too much time to dwell on the events of seven years ago.

Weinstein has long denied he did anything illegal and disputes the sexual harassment claims of dozens of women included in the report.

The article opened with claims by actress Ashley Judd that Weinstein sexually harassed her in a hotel room, including asking for a massage and to watch him shower.

‘I never touched her, I never asked for a massage, I never did any of that,’ Weinstein told the Daily Mail of Judd’s claims specifically.

Weinstein now wants the Pulitzer Prize Board to strip reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of the awards they won for the story.

‘They’re not Woodward and Bernstein, they’re Thelma and Louise!’ he fumed. 

The Times, on Kantor and Twohey’s behalf, said the story was was rigorously reported over many months. 

‘It was based on on-the-record interviews with multiple women, backed up by people they told at the time, as well legal settlements paid to accusers, internal human resources documents, and other records,’ the newspaper said.

‘Mr. Weinstein acknowledged misconduct in a 2017 statement that was published in full in The Times, saying “the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain” and that he regretted what happened.

‘In the seven years since, there have been no significant challenges to our reporting. 

‘Dozens of other allegations of sexual harassment have been made against him. He also has been convicted of rape and sexual assault in California.’

Weinstein reserved particular ire for Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the New York Times reporters whose October 2017 article began his downfall

Also in Weinstein’s crosshairs was Jackson, who worked with him on the Lord of the Rings films before New Line took over production. 

In December 2017, Jackson claimed Miramax and Weinstein warned him against casting Judd and fellow actress Mira Sorvino in the films.

Both women accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct in the first wave of allegations, two months before Jackson entered the fray.

‘I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998,’ Jackson said.

‘At the time, we had no reason to question what these guys were telling us – but in hindsight, I realize that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing. 

‘I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women – and as a direct result their names were removed from our casting list.’

He admits that he ‘hurt his family’ and ‘cheated’ on ex-wife Georgina Chapman , who has found new love with Hollywood actor Adrien Brody 

Weinstein reignited the two-decade feud with the celebrated director, calling him ‘jealous’ and denying he tried to damage anyone’s career, challenging Jackson to revive his claim so the pair could ‘debate’. 

‘Peter Jackson was the original guy who said that I blackballed Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd,’ he raged.

‘I would like Peter Jackson to restate his claim so that he and I can debate what he said, because I realized that so many women use that as an excuse.

‘”He was going to blackball me, he was going to take away my job, he was going to do this” – that all came from one jealous Peter Jackson.

‘What he said had such volcanic effect on every accuser of mine, and I’d like him to restate it so that I can debate with him fully if he has the courage to do it.

‘You’ll probably hear nothing but a whimper from him.’ 

Weinstein claimed Jackson was just ‘jealous’ of him and bitter about other conflicts they had during the massively successful fantasy trilogy’s development. 

He explained that his Miramax studio bought the rights to the JRR Tolkien classic and financed the scripts, but it became clear they needed more cash.

The two butted heads because he wanted to make major changes so Disney, which owned Miramax, would pony up the extra $180 million needed.

‘I think that bothered him in because at one time I had to say to him tough stuff like, look, if you’re not going to agree with what we’re going to do and Disney’s not going to give me any money, I have to maybe consider another director,’ he said.

‘Obviously that’s a terrible thing to say. I feel horrible about it and thank God it didn’t happen.’

Kantor and Twohey were portrayed by Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan in the movie She Said 

Disney eventually pulled out and New Line stepped in, letting Jackson do the trilogy as he wanted, grossing almost $3 billion – but Weinstein still profited.

‘I think he was jealous that I got a piece of the action of Lord of the Rings. It just hurt him, and I mean New Line did such a great job, but I still was an executive producer and still had a percentage,’ he said.

Throughout the interview with the Daily Mail, Weinstein also lashed out at his accusers with the vigor and conviction of a man convinced he would be vindicated.

At the time of the interview, his New York retrial, in which three women accuse him of sexual assault, was in closing arguments, and his appeal of a 16-year rape sentence in Los Angeles was pending.

Weinstein believed he would win both.

‘I think the #MeToo movement is getting weak, I think that people now are listening to men and women, and I think there’s a definite movement in this country to just say, we’re not [just] going to listen to one side,’ he said.

‘I think the results [of the trials] are gonna be fine… I think there’s a real movement now to telling the truth and proving that these girls were in it for the money.

‘But if the reverse happens, my health is in jeopardy.’

Weinstein is struggling with cancer, diabetes, spinal stenosis and a possible immune system problem that he claims are not competently treated in jail.

His mobility is so bad he is pushed in and out of the courtroom in a wheelchair by court officers, scrambling pathetically with his legs as he goes.

‘I turn 73 next Wednesday and I’m in a place where I don’t think I’ll get to 74,’ he told the Daily Mail earlier this year from Rikers Island jail.

Among those in his sights are Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, and the New York Times journalists who set off his downfall

With such a litany of ailments and grim prognosis, he admitted there was a real possibility he wouldn’t live to be released even if he won both his legal battles. Weinstein is shown in wheelchair in November 2024 

With such a litany of ailments and grim prognosis, he admitted there was a real possibility he wouldn’t live to be released, even if he won both his legal battles.

‘The answer to that question is, I don’t know,’ he said when asked this week.

Weinstein is usually locked up at Rikers, but was staying at Bellevue Hospital for the duration of the retrial. He desperately doesn’t want to return to Rikers.

‘I’m afraid to go back to Rikers under any situation,’ he said.

‘I’ve had four emergency episodes there, and I don’t want a fifth at my age and in my condition… it would just be disastrous.

‘Rikers is a medieval place that needs tearing down, and they promise every year they’ll tear it down.’

But he had plenty of complaints about the holding cell at the courthouse he was being kept in two hours before and after proceedings and during breaks.

‘My lunch break is peanut butter and jelly sandwich from 1947, or Cheerios from 1948, that’s it,’ he said.

Incarceration, of any kind, also gives him time to reflect on how far he rose in the movie world, and how much further he fell.

Ashley Judd in 1999, around the time Peter Jackson claimed Harvey Weinstein told him she was too difficult to work with and he shouldn’t hire her

He tells a story of how he was broke and starving while hitchhiking across the US as a young man, and an Indian man gave him $1.10 to get by.

‘Well, it’s worse than where I started, prison is the most inhumane thing. You’re automatically humbled and they take away all your privileges,’ he said.

Weinstein said if he ever got out, and lived long enough, he would establish a halfway house to help felons transition back into society.

‘We can’t be just imprisoning people, have to be rehabilitated,’ he said.

‘I felt that way before I went in and now that I’m in, meeting some of these kids who made mistakes, who made early mistakes, but they need a life – and I’m here to any way that I can to help.’

Not that Weinstein believes he needs rehabilitating, at least not in any criminal fashion.

‘I cheated on my wife, which was immoral, I hurt my family, I had a bad temper at work… I might have been immoral in my actions with other women, but I certainly did nothing illegal,’ he insisted.

Kaja Sokola (left) and Jessica Mann (right) along with production assistant Mimi Haley are the three alleged victims in Weinstein’s ongoing retrial in New York

Weinstein’s retrial is wrapping up.

He was convicted of sexually assaulting aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and raping production assistant Mimi Haley in 2006.

But last year, the New York Court of Appeals astonishingly ruled that Weinstein did not receive a fair trial – and tossed out his 23-year sentence.

Mann and Haley restated their cases during the trial, and Polish ex-model Kaja Sokola was added to the mix, alleging Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006 when she was just 19.

His lawyers told the court the women consented to sex acts with Weinstein as a ‘quid pro quo’ to further their careers.

Weinstein was also jailed in Los Angeles for 16 years for rape, forced oral copulation and third-degree sexual misconduct in 2022 – he was acquitted of four other charges.

His lawyers filed an appeal weeks after the verdict, which is being considered by the California Court of Appeal.