A woman who says Harvey Weinstein raped her twice testified on Tuesday that her claims should not be dismissed because she had on-and-off relationship with the Hollywood mogul.
A day after having a panic attack on the witness stand, Jessica Mann returned to court and faced questions from defense attorneys as they dug into her years of communications with Weinstein.
Mann has testified that Weinstein, the powerful former movie producer, forced her to do sex acts and raped her twice over the course of what she described as an abusive relationship. His attorneys have suggested in court that Mann had been manipulating him.
Weinstein’s attorneys highlighted a series of emails and texts that Mann sent to Weinstein that appeared to show affection for him long after the alleged attack in March 2013.
“I love you, I always do. but I hate feeling like a booty call. :)” Mann wrote in a message in February 2017.
Weinstein responded to that email telling her that he knew she was joking but not to send things like that to his work email account. He gave her a phone number to contact him going forward.
Mann emailed back to tell him she was joking and offered her “sincerest apologies if received wrong.” Then in that same email she gave him a new phone number and told him to reach out to her there because she’d see it faster than email.
When asked about the messages, Mann said she was not ashamed of them.
“I know the history of my relationship with him. I know it is complicated and different but it does not change the fact that he raped me,” she testified.
Mann said they had several interactions in 2016. “At this point he was being really actually truly nice to me,” she testified.
Mann’s testimony and the cross-examination highlight the thorny questions around consent and unequal power dynamics in the criminal trial. Defense attorneys have highlighted Mann and Weinstein’s many communications as they try to argue that the sexual interactions were consensual.
To combat that point, prosecutors earlier in the trial called to the stand a forensic psychiatrist who testified that it was a “rape myth” that victims of sexual violence behave a certain way. Some victims continue to interact with their abusers afterward, Dr. Barbara Ziv testified.
When Mann’s cross-examination ended Tuesday, prosecutors called four witnesses, including a photographer with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office who shared with the jury several naked photos of Weinstein that were taken as part of the investigation after he was arrested in 2018. The photos were introduced as evidence on Tuesday after Mann said Weinstein had “extreme scarring” and described his genitalia as abnormal and “deformed” during the first day of her testimony last week.
Mann burst into heavy sobs on Monday after reading a letter she penned to a former boyfriend in May 2014. She returned to the witness stand after a brief break but could not compose herself. Attorneys tried to calm her down, but she said she was having a panic attack and left the courtroom gasping for air.
Weinstein is charged with five counts, including rape and predatory sexual assault, and three of the charges deal directly with Mann’s accusations.
Prosecutors have said Weinstein raped and sexually assaulted young women, including Mann, over the course of decades, and that he used his power in the movie industry to prey on and manipulate young women who hoped to further their careers.
Defense says they had a ‘loving’ relationship
Mann testified that the last time she had a sexual encounter with him was in November 2016 around the time that Weinstein’s mother died. Mann said that an employee contacted her, saying that Weinstein wanted to see her because she had lost her father and so understood his situation.
When she met Weinstein, she testified that she got there and “he’s naked on a bed and all he wants to do is something sexual.”
Mann has said that Weinstein raped her after a period in which he befriended her, gave her a film script and invited her to parties for events such as the Oscars. In cross-examination, Weinstein attorney Donna Rotunno repeatedly asked Mann to acknowledge that she had manipulated Weinstein every time she interacted with him, making him believe she was interested in him when she wasn’t.
“That’s your version,” Mann responded.
Mann said that she did and said certain things to Weinstein to protect herself and her budding acting career. “I guess you can say manipulation,” she said.
But Weinstein’s attorneys have said the sexual incidents were consensual and have rejected prosecutors’ stark predator versus prey dynamic.
“This is not about a young individual who was tricked by a master manipulator,” Weinstein attorney Damon Cheronis said in opening statements about Mann. “You will see, get ready for it, an actual loving relationship in hundreds of emails and communications between Harvey Weinstein and Jessica Mann.”
CNN’s Nicole Chavez contributed to this report.
