Exclusive: After opting not to retry Harvey Weinstein, Manhattan DA urges legislators to step up for sex assault survivors | CNN

Nearly a week after opting not to retry movie mogul Harvey Weinstein on a rape charge, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told CNN in an exclusive interview Wednesday that legislators will have to act to help survivors of sexual assault get their justice. Bragg wants prosecutors to be able to include testimony about previous “bad acts” against defendants so that all accusers’ voices can be heard. That’s what his office did when it won a conviction of Weinstein in 2020, in a seismic moment for the #MeToo movement and survivors of sexual abuse. The New York Court of Appeals overturned the conviction in 2024, ruling that testimony of witnesses who said Weinstein used his Hollywood influence to take advantage of them was “erroneously admitted.” Last month Bragg dropped any plan for a fourth trial on a rape charge when the accuser said she could not endure going to court again. “We’re hard at work with members of the legislature to address and change the law,” Bragg said. “We didn’t get it done this year, but we tried, and we’ll be back again next year trying to change the law … to allow for more evidence like that to come in.” Coordinated bills introduc