Weinstein juror: #MeToo movement was not a factor in trial
Associated PressNEW YORK — The jury that convicted Harvey Weinstein of rape and sex assault did not consider the trial’s implications for the #MeToo movement, one of the jurors said in an interview aired Friday. “No, zero, absolutely zero,” juror Drew Malbin said on “CBS This Morning.” “Because it’s not the job and it’s not what we were asked to do.” He added, “It would be an adulteration of the process to take outside factors and have that weigh on our decision-making process and eventual findings.” Weinstein, 67, was found guilty Monday of raping an aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006. At the outset of the trial, Judge James Burke cautioned jurors: “This trial is not a referendum on the #MeToo movement.” Weinstein, the former Hollywood mogul, has an injured back and other health problems and has been in Bellevue Hospital’s wing for prisoners while awaiting transfer to New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex. Asked by CBS’ Gayle King whether Weinstein should be in jail, Malbin said, “That’s not for me to say.” “You know, I could say that a man of his age and of his current health, the general population at Rikers sounds like a pretty dangerous place,” Malbin said.