‘I Feel Spacey’: Harvey Weinstein’s Accuser Struggles To Testify When Confronted With Love Note She Wrote About Him Just After Alleged Rape

Defense attorneys for the disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein questioned his accuser, the former actress Jessica Mann, about a previously unknown journal-like note she wrote to herself two days after Weinstein had allegedly raped her at a Midtown Manhattan hotel in 2013, on Thursday afternoon. “I have let myself become emotionally attached to someone,” Ms. Mann read to the jury from a note she had written into her cell phone in 2013. “Do I love him or the idea of him?” the note – which the defense obtained from data collected from Ms. Mann’s cellphone in the runup to the trial – went on. The note did not explicitly reference Weinstein but it was written two days after the alleged sexual encounter took place, on March 20, 2013, and appeared to reflect her feelings about the producer, the defense argued. Former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Supreme Court during his retrial on April 30, 2026 in New York City. Steven Hirsch – Pool/Getty ImagesThe 40-year-old witness was testifying for the third time against Weinstein at Manhattan criminal court, accusing the producer for a third time of the same crime: that he raped her at the DoubleTree hotel in Midtown Manhattan on March 18, 2013. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty every time, claiming his sexual encounters with Ms. Mann were consensual. In 2020, when the charge was first brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, Weinstein was accused of rape in the first and in the third-degree. The jury convicted him only on the third-degree count. But the conviction was overturned in 2024 by New York’s Court of Appeals. A second trial was held in 2025 during which Ms. Mann testified again. The jury could not agree on a verdict and after five days of contentious deliberations – during which the jury foreman said he was physically threatened by another juror – the judge declared a mistrial on her charge. NEW YORK, NEW YORK – APRIL 30: Former actress Jessica Mann appears in Manhattan criminal court to testify against former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein at the re-trial of his rape case on April 30, 2026 in New York City. In neither of the two previous trials, in 2020 and in 2025, did the defense team show the jury the note that was retrieved from one of the five phones, Ms. Mann handed over to the Manhattan district attorney’s office sometime in 2018. Mr. Weinstein hired a new team for the ongoing trial: the Manhattan firm Agnifilo Intrater. Two of the attorneys, Marc Agnifilo and Jacob Kaplan also represent the alleged killer of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Luigi Mangione. The firm also represented the music producer Sean “Diddy” Combs as part of the “dream team” that won acquittals for Mr. Combs – who was facing a life sentence for sex trafficking and conspiracy – on the serious counts. The attorney, Teny Geragos, who was part of that “dream team” was cross-examining Ms. Mann on Thursday. Weinstein’s new legal team has been focusing extensively on the date that was retrieved from Ms. Mann’s phones and presented for the first time the note she appeared to have written to herself two days after the alleged rape. Before the judge allowed the defense to submit the note as evidence and question the witness about it, he asked Ms. Mann – without the presence of the jury – if she was dating anyone else during the time to ensure the note was not in reference to another man. Former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Supreme Court during his retrial on April 30, 2026 in New York City. Steven Hirsch – Pool/Getty Images“Were you dating anybody?” the judge, Curtis Faber, asked Ms. Mann. “There was a lot going on in my life,” Ms. Mann replied. “This open thing with Harvey,” she went on. She had previously testified that she had an “open” relationship with the producer, whom she met at a party in Los Angeles earlier in 2013. She had even had a few sexual encounters with him she considered consensual, she had told the court, but none of them had included sexual intercourse. During her direct examination, she said the incident at the DoubleTree Hotel on March 18, 2013, was the first time Weinstein had ever actually penetrated her, which according to her testimony, she had refused, and thus alleged to be rape. Ms. Mann was a 27 year old aspiring actress at the time, and Weinstein, an Oscar-awarded movie producer, was 60. The judge asked again, if Ms. Mann was dating anyone else at the time when she wrote the note. “I may have been going on some dates,” Ms. Mann said.John Lamparski/Getty ImagesThe judge was not convinced. He cited another part of the note that read “Do I love myself enough to make a mistake?” “I think the mistake is about falling in love with a married man,” Judge Faber said. At the time Weinstein was married to the English fashion designer and actress Georgina Chapman, with whom he shares two children. She left him in 2017, shortly after his fall from grace. “Because of the timing of this (and) the nature of this, this is relevant,” the judge said of the note. “I’m gonna allow it.” He called the jury into the courtroom. Ms. Geragos asked the witness to read her own note to the seven men and five women on the bench. “I emotionally am exclusive. I have let myself become emotionally attached to someone,” Ms. Mann began in a quiet and faint voice. “And I want that person to love me back.”“Do I love him or the idea of him?” another part of the note said. “If he is not there in the future, what will I have?” The defense attorney asked Ms. Mann if she was aware that one day before she wrote the note, she “had tea with Weinstein and his daughter on his birthday?” Former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Supreme Court during his retrial on April 30, 2026 in New York City. Steven Hirsch – Pool/Getty ImagesMs. Mann had traveled to New York from Los Angeles, where she was living, to spend a weekend in Gotham with two friends. She was staying at the DoubleTree Hotel with one of her friends. She had planned a breakfast to introduce Weinstein to her friends on March 18 at the hotel. But according to her testimony, Weinstein arrived earlier than planned and booked a room at the hotel. After an altercation between him and Ms. Mann in the lobby, where she said she told him she did not want to go to a room with him, she followed him upstairs, where he allegedly raped her. The next day, she had tea with him and his daughter, Emma, who was 15 years old at the and who is the daughter of his previous wife, Eve Chilton, to celebrate his birthday. “I know that I was struggling with some of the decisions I was making that were different than what I was raised with,” Ms. Mann explained. As the Sun reported, Ms. Mann was raised in a pentecostal evangelical church in a small town in Washington State. “Do I love myself enough to make mistakes?” The note went on. “ God protect me from my own lack of understanding and naivete. Guide me to the right things in life, the right decisions—to love and freedom. To healing in my life and to acceptance of myself.” Ms. Mann was visibly nervous. “Freedom is a key word because I was being controlled,” she told the court without being asked why ‘freedom’ was referenced in the note. When the defense attorney began to question the witness about the alleged rape incident, Ms. Mann grew more and more anxious. “I feel spacey,” she told the judge, saying she couldn’t concentrate. The judge gave her a ten minute break. But when Ms. Mann returned to the courtroom, she said, she was feeling “really stressed out” and “light headed.” Judge Faber ended the proceeding for the day and told the witness to get a good night’s sleep. Weinstein’s press spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told the Sun, he believes the note is “pertinent to the jury’s decision” on Ms. Mann’s mindset, “and how she really felt, and what really happened that time.” Ms. Mann’s testimony will continue on Friday.

‘I Feel Spacey’: Harvey Weinstein’s Accuser Struggles To Testify When Confronted With Love Note She Wrote About Him Just After Alleged Rape

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