On October 5, 2017, The New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey broke a story alleging that Harvey Weinstein engaged in three decades of sexual misconduct. The investigation detailed claims that Weinstein harassed actresses, production assistants, and other female employees at Miramax and TWC, and reached eight settlements, following an intensive five-month inquiry.

Weinstein’s allegations were under evaluation by the New York City Police Department (NYPD), London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in October 2017, in response to reports regarding his behavior. According to reports, the London investigation, which was nicknamed “Operation Kaguyak,” examined fifteen alleged sexual assaults perpetrated by Weinstein in the 1990s. Weinstein has been authorized by the UK Crown Prosecution Service to be charged with alleged indecent assaults that occurred in 1996.

The New York County District Attorney’s Office charged Weinstein with “rape, criminal sex act, sex abuse, and sexual misconduct” for incidents involving two distinct women on May 25, 2018. After surrendering to the New York City Police Department (NYPD), he was apprehended and subsequently appeared before Judge Kevin McGrath in the New York City Criminal Court. On the same day, Weinstein was released on a $1 million bond. He consented to relinquish his passport and wear an ankle monitor that restricted him to New York and Connecticut. Weinstein was indicted in July 2018 on an additional charge of “predatory sexual assault” against a woman whom he allegedly coerced into oral intercourse in 2006. One of the sex assault charges was dismissed by a magistrate on October 11, 2018.

Weinstein was tried in February 2020 in Manhattan Supreme Court. At the trial, six women testified that Weinstein had sexually assaulted them; the charges themselves rested on the complaints of two women, a former production assistant and a former actress who gave the jury accounts from 2006 and 2013, respectively.

Harvey Weinstein was convicted in 2020 in New York of raping Jessica Mann and sexually assaulting Miriam Haley, but this was overturned in 2024:

• Raping Jessica Mann, an aspiring actress, in 2013, under third-degree rape charges, which involve sexual intercourse with a person incapable of consent due to mental incapacity or physical helplessness.
• Sexually assaulting Miriam Haley, a production assistant, in 2006, under first-degree criminal sexual act charges, typically involving forcible oral or anal sex.

Weinstein was found convicted of rape in the third degree and a criminal sexual act in the first degree by the jury on February 24, 2020. However, he was found not guilty of three counts, including two more serious charges of predatory sexual assault. The convictions were the outcome of the case of “Jane Doe 1,” who was subsequently identified as Evgeniya Chernyshova, a Russian model and actress residing in Italy.

Evgeniya testified that Weinstein entered her hotel room without her permission at the 2013 Italian Film Festival in Los Angeles. He proceeded to sexually assault her in the bathroom after she opened the door.

Harvey Weinstein was transferred to a state prison in New York on March 18, 2020, to begin serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault following his conviction on February 24, 2020. The move, which occurred on his 68th birthday, marks the start of his incarceration in his landmark #MeToo case

The Los Angeles trial began in October 2022 with Weinstein facing 11 charges of rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual battery; on December 19, 2022, he was found guilty of 3 of 7 remaining charges, including rape of Evgeniya Chernyshova, forced oral copulation, and third degree sexual misconduct.