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00:00 Straight in to the news I want to turn now to Jessica Le Mazurier, France 24's
00:05 correspondent in New York. Jessica what do we know about Thursday's verdict?
00:12 Well this is just a stunning reversal of the case that sparked the #MeToo movement.
00:18 I covered it extensively in 2020 and I'm really just gobsmacked at this decision
00:26 today. This trial of course took place in the same courthouse where
00:30 Donald Trump is currently on trial in his hush money case. Harvey Weinstein's
00:36 rape conviction has been overturned by New York's High Court and this ruling
00:41 says that essentially all the evidence of uncharged prior bad acts, so the
00:46 women who took the stand talk about things he's done that were not being
00:50 directly related to this case or they were not involved in this particular case,
00:54 that those testimonies undermined the defendant's right to testify.
00:59 That was the argument and the court said that the remedy of these errors is
01:04 actually a new trial. So this is huge. The problem according to the court
01:08 is that the trial judge actually made a mistake by allowing these women to
01:11 testify about Harvey Weinstein's abuse although they were not included in the
01:16 direct criminal charges. So now the Manhattan District Attorney, Bragg, who is
01:23 interestingly not in court today because he would have otherwise been in court
01:26 for Trump's trial, has to decide whether or not to retry the 71 year old movie
01:33 producer. Now he had been given 23 years in prison for that conviction and he is
01:43 interestingly enough actually going to remain in prison because he was also
01:48 convicted in LA in 2022 of another rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison for
01:54 that. So he is going to remain, as far as I understand, in prison here in New York
01:59 State. He's at the Mohawk Correctional Facility which is about 100 miles
02:03 northwest of Albany. He still maintains his innocence.
02:07 Jessica, just an apology, I did say verdict, it is a ruling in the court.
02:13 Can you take us back to that moment Harvey Weinstein when he was convicted?
02:18 2020, it was a huge bombshell revelation especially with regards to the #MeToo
02:23 movement, how things just sparked off from there. Tell me about the man Harvey
02:28 Weinstein, why this was so big? I sat in court and listened to testimony upon
02:33 testimony from women who said that they had been abused in terrible ways by this
02:39 man and he was convicted as I said here for rape and he was also convicted in LA.
02:45 Yeah this was really a huge case. It was the first big #MeToo case and so this
02:53 decision now is just going to be something that's absolutely terrible for
02:57 those victims and especially because if there's another trial those witnesses
03:04 are going to be forced to relive their trauma once again. Can you just
03:11 expand more on that fallout? Have there been immediate reactions from women's
03:15 groups that we know of and obviously what likely reaction is to come?
03:22 Yes, women's groups are outraged but I haven't yet heard from the lawyers who
03:30 were prosecuting him so they have not yet answered. This news only just broke.
03:36 Of course, very fresh news and we will be coming back to you later on. Jessica,
03:41 thanks so much for that update.