The retrial of Harvey Weinstein on rape and s*x charges in Manhattan commenced on Wednesday (April 23, 2025), with prosecutors proposing evidence of two of the accusers from his 2020 trial and claims from a new accuser. The fresh complaint is filed by former model Kaja Sokola, who had accused him of oral s*x by force in early 2000. She also charged her with groping when she was 16. This latest lawsuit brought more legal woes to the Oscar-winning producer.
Harvey Weinstein faces fresh retrial
As per the prosecutors, Kaja Sokola, who made the new allegations, was an actress and model who met Weinstein in 2002 for the first time when she was 16, and remained in contact with him for career purposes. The forcible meeting with Weinstein is alleged to have taken place in 2006 after lunch with Weinstein and her sister at a Manhattan hotel, where he asked her upstairs to his hotel room to read scripts and afterwards forced oral s*x on her.
According to the prosecution, Sokola was also an extra in
The Nanny Diaries, because of Weinstein's referral, where she was treated like royalty and became acquainted with the stars of the movie, Alicia Keys and Scarlett Johansson. Sokola is among the three accusers in this case. Weinstein also stands accused of rape in the third degree against former production assistant Miriam Haley and of sexual assault against aspiring actress Jessica Mann.
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For the unversed, in 2017, after Sokola sued him during the #MeToo movement, she received 3.5 million dollars in compensation. For now, Weinstein has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Arthur Aidala, claimed the women were not victims but actresses within a favours-for-fame culture. "The casting couch is not a crime scene," he claimed, stating the women remained in contact with Weinstein for their own free will.