Harvey Weinstein was just sentenced to 23 years in prison for both rape and forcibly performing sex act on two different women in 2013 and 2006:
WTOP – Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Wednesday to 23 in prison for rape and sexual assault, a sight the Hollywood mogul’s multitude of accusers thought they would never see.
Weinstein, who has been accused of violating scores of women, was convicted last month of raping a woman in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on another woman at his apartment in 2006. He faced a maximum of 29 years in prison.
Both women that Weinstein was convicted of assaulting — a once-aspiring actress and a former TV and film production assistant — spoke in court Wednesday before Judge James Burke announced the sentence, confronting Weinstein again after their testimony helped seal his conviction at the landmark #MeToo trial.
Burke also heard from Weinstein’s lawyers, who pleaded for leniency because of his age and frail health, and prosecutors, who said the man once celebrated as a titan of Hollywood deserved a harsh sentence that would account for allegations of wrongdoing dating to the 1970s.
I remember seeing headlines reporting that Weinstein’s attorneys argued that if Weinstein got more than a few years he would die in prison. Or that his ‘fall from grace’ was punishment enough.
Clearly those arguments had little sway over the judge, who could have sentenced Weinstein to as little as 5 years or as many as 29 years. Slapping him with 23 years shows just how serious the judge felt his crimes were and sends a strong message to those who would abuse their power as Weinstein did.
I’m glad Weinstein is finally getting his due. And NBC News should be ashamed of themselves for trying to spike this Weinstein story in the beginning.