NEW YORK — Prosecutors are giving their closing argument Friday at Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial.
After a lengthy defense closing on Thursday, prosecutors are looking to focus the jury's attention back on the accusers who testified and their harrowing accounts alleging rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbation, lewd propositions and casting couch excuses.
Prosecutors must also answer some of the defense's knocks on the case. Chief among them: that the two women Weinstein is charged with attacking were opportunists who willingly latched on to the once-powerful Weinstein and acquiesced to sex with him because they thought it would help their careers.
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer has told jurors that prosecutors in the rape case against him acted like moviemakers and conjured up a world where women aren't responsible for how they interact with men.
Donna Rotunno said in a closing argument Thursday that Weinstein is innocent.
Prosecutors are set to close Friday in the case, which is seen as a watershed for the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct.
The once-powerful movie producer is charged with raping a woman in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on a different woman in 2006.
Weinstein has maintained any sexual encounters were consensual.
According to The Associated Press, Weinstein's lawyer Donna Rotunno said in her closing argument that he’s an innocent man relying on jurors not to be swayed by a “sinister tale.”
Deliberations are expected to begin next week.
