Dear Donna Rotunno,

An Open Letter to Harvey Weinstein’s Lawyer

Harvey Weinstein, center, leaves court with his lead attorney Donna Rotunno, left center, at the end of the first day of jury selection in his trial, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020, in New York. Jury selection resumes Wednesday. (Mary Altaffer/AP)

Like the plot twist of a sadistic rom-com, twelve jurors spent Valentine’s Day listening to closing statements for Harvey Weinstein’s criminal charges of rape and sexual assault. Weinstein’s defense lawyer, Donna Rotunno, asserted that the trial effectively revokes all agency from women. Earlier in the week, Rotunno alleged that the prosecutors “have created a universe that strips adult women of common sense, autonomy and responsibility. It is offensive, actually.”

Nearly two weeks ago in an interview with Insider, Rotunno described her mother and grandmother as being subservient to no one. “These are women who never made excuses […] Women who said, ‘I can do anything.’”

But it was last week’s interview with New York Times reporter Megan Twohey that Twitter erupted over and a new #MeToo wave crested the horizon. In a last minute follow up question, Twohey asked “actually I had another question, which was whether or not you’ve been sexually assaulted.” Rotunno responded “I have not. Because I would never put myself in that position. […] I’ve always made choices, from college age on, where I never drank too much, I never went home with someone that I didn’t know. I just never put myself in any vulnerable circumstance ever.”