During Harvey Weinstein’s retrial, tensions escalated when a woman accusing him of sexual assault termed him a “f**king a**hole” during her cross-examination.
This heated exchange took place on Friday, marking Miriam Haley’s fourth day on the stand. She faced intense questioning from one of Weinstein’s lawyers regarding the alleged assault in July 2006.
“What do you remember him ripping off,” defense attorney Jennifer Bonjean asked Haley, to which she responded, “My tampon.”
The inquiry intensified as the lawyer persistently questioned Haley about her memory of who removed her clothes during the alleged incident at Weinstein’s SoHo Manhattan apartment in 2006.
When Bonjean asked Haley whether she or Weinstein who took off her clothes, the former Project Runway production assistant, 48, insisted Weinstein, 73, removed her clothes.
“He was the one who raped me, not the other way around,” Haley said.
Bonjean responded, “That is for the jury to decide.”
The response caused tears to stream down Haley’s face as she replied in a loud voice, “No, it’s not for the jury to decide.
“It’s my experience. And he did that to me.
“Don’t tell me I wasn’t raped by that f**king a**hole,” Haley, who also goes by Mimi Haleyi, said, according to the New York Post.
The heated cross-examination led Judge Michael Farber to stop the questioning and instructed jurors to exit the courtroom before calling for a short break.
Haley wiped tears from her eyes as she exited the courtroom through a back door.
Questioning removed after the break as Haley continued her fourth day of testimony.
EMOTIONAL TESTIMONY
During her testimony on Wednesday, Haley testified how she agreed to meet Weinstein at a Manhattan hotel weeks after the alleged attack at his SoHo apartment.
Haley said she assumed they would meet and speak at the hotel bar, but when she arrived, she was told to meet him upstairs in his room.
There, she said Weinstein immediately “pulled her” to his bed and said, “I was just like, ‘Oh, no, no again.’
“He basically proceeded to undress me. I felt so stupid. I kind of just went numb and he proceeded to have intercourse with me and I just lay there like a dead fish.”
Haley is the first of three accusers expected to testify against Weinstein.
Actress Jessica Mann and model Kaja Sokola are also expected to take the stand at some point during the trial.
Sokola claimed that she was 16 when Weinstein sexually assaulted her at a hotel in Manhattan in 2006.
While in the hotel, Sokola alleged that Weinstein forcefully performed oral sex on her as she begged him to stop, “Please don’t do this,” the model cried out, according to prosecutors.
Mann and Haley testified during Weinstein’s initial trial in 2020, which resulted in a conviction.
Weinstein’s conviction was overturned by a New York Appeals Court in 2024.
He has maintained his innocence and denied assaulting the three women.
