Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein wallowed in self-pity at his sentencing, comparing the #MeToo movement to the communist-era blacklisting hysteria.
“You know, I just — dealing with the thousands of men and women who are losing due process, I’m worried about this country in a sense, too,” Weinstein said Wednesday shortly before he was handed his 23-year prison term for raping an aspiring actress and sexually abusing a production assistant.
While women’s rights advocates have hailed the case for bringing a powerful man to justice for his sexual misconduct, Weinstein likened his trial to the mid-century communist scare that led to the blacklisting of stars and politicians.
“I’m worried there is a repeat of the blacklist there was in the 1950s, when lots of men like myself, Dalton Trumbo, one of the great examples, did not work, went to jail because people thought they were communists,” he went on.
“It is wrong, you know, and that is what is happening,” he went on. “Everybody is on some sort of blacklist.”
The disgraced movie-mogul who produced blockbuster hits and Oscar-winning films claimed he had no real sway in the industry — that a perceived power was built up by the roughly 80 women who have accused him of sexual assault or harassment.
“Miramax at the height of its fame was a smaller company than by far any Walt Disney, any Sony, Paramount,” Weinstein said, noting the production company he founded with his brother back in 1979.
“I could not blackball anybody, because if I said, ‘Don’t use that actress, the guys at Warner Brothers would say I’m going to use it to despite that bastard, whatever,’” he went on. “That is what it was. But it became blown up like power, power, power.”
All six of Weinstein’s accusers attended his sentencing in Manhattan Supreme Court and were seated in the front row.
The state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said Weinstein will be transferred out of the city’s jail system and to the state prison system “in the near future.”