New York prosecutors drop rape charge against Harvey Weinstein

New York prosecutors dropped the remaining rape charge against Harvey Weinstein on Thursday after Jessica Mann said she could not endure testifying in a fourth trial. The move ended the last unresolved New York count tied to Mann’s allegation that Weinstein raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

The decision came after three earlier New York proceedings had already consumed years of court time and repeated testimony. A 2020 conviction in the case was overturned by the New York Court of Appeals on April 25, 2024, sending the matter back for retrial. That new trial began on April 15, 2025, and ended in a mistrial in May 2026, leaving prosecutors with a choice between trying the case yet again or walking away.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the office would not retry the remaining count after speaking with Mann and described the approach as survivor-centered. Mann’s court statement said the case had stolen a decade of her life and left her feeling fragmented, silenced, defamed and traumatized. Her decision made clear how repeated prosecutions can shift from a quest for accountability into a test of endurance for the person making the accusation.

Weinstein’s lawyers had argued the case should never have been brought, and Weinstein has denied the allegation, saying the encounter was consensual and part of a yearslong relationship. Even with the New York charge dropped, the outcome did not clear him of other convictions. Weinstein remains convicted in California and is serving a 16-year prison sentence there after a Los Angeles rape conviction in February 2023.

The latest dismissal closes one chapter of one of the defining #MeToo cases, but it also shows the limits of a justice system built to punish crimes long after the trauma, evidence disputes and witness fatigue have accumulated. Weinstein is still behind bars, still appealing convictions, and still a convicted sex offender in more than one state. What ended in Manhattan was not the larger case against him, but the prospect of forcing Jessica Mann through a fourth trial for the same allegation.