Harvey Weinstein accused of $1.75M smear campaign as he learns his fate in NYC sex crimes case

Convicted sex pest Harvey Weinstein begged for “mercy” as he was sentenced in a Manhattan courtroom Wednesday to 15 years in prison — as prosecutors revealed his plot to pay a podcaster $1.75 million in advance of his latest trial to smear his victims.“I am not a perfect person.I am a person who has made mistakes,” the decrepit 74-year-old told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber before learning his fate on his 2025 conviction of criminal sex act in the first degree for sexually assaulting former TV production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haley.“I really do have remorse for Miriam Haley,” claimed Weinstein, who was rolled into court in a wheelchair and who his lawyers called “a very sick man” who has been wasting away on Rikers Island.“I’m not a violent man.

I ask for mercy,” the former Miramax boss pleaded.Farber sentenced Weinstein to 15 years in lockup — where the disgraced Hollywood mogul could die behind bars — after prosecutors said they had recordings of him offering a podcaster $1.75m to release videos of witnesses “to contaminate the jury pool and to reach the jurors before and after the trial.”Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg did not identify the podcaster, but Candace Owens released a podcast series in 2025 called “Harvey Speaks,” which featured videos of Weinstein at RikersThe ex-Miramax boss had faced up to 25 years in prison on the guilty count — but Manhattan prosecutors had signaled that they were seeking a sentence of 20 years in prison for the “significant harms” that Weinstein’s action caused Haley.Weinstein’s long-awaited sentence comes nearly six years after he was first tried in 2020 during the height of the #MeToo movement,At that trial, Weinstein was convicted of third-degree rape for sexually assaulting actress Jessica Mann inside Midtown’s DoubleTree hotel on March 18, 2013.But Weinstein’s conviction was then overturned by New York’s highest appeals court, and a new trial was ordered.P...