Trump on Weinstein conviction: ‘Great thing’ for women

President Trump on Tuesday called Harvey Weinstein’s conviction in his sexual assault and rape case a “great thing” for women while taking a shot at Democrats for their ties to the former mega-donor.

While saying he didn’t know “too much about the case” because of travel and meetings while on a two-day state visit to India, Trump said when asked what message the verdict delivers to women in America still afraid of coming forward: “I think that from the standpoint of women, it was a great thing. It was a great victory and sends a very strong message.”

The former Hollywood mogul was found guilty a day earlier on two of five counts in his New York trial, including a criminal sexual act and third-degree rape. Weinstein, 67, faces up to four years in prison on the rape charge, and between five and 25 years for the criminal sexual act charge. He was acquitted on the most serious charges against him.

“He was a person I didn’t like,” Trump told reporters of Weinstein during a news conference in India.

“The people that liked him were the Democrats. Michelle Obama loved him. Loved him. Hillary Clinton loved him,” Trump claimed to members of the press.

“Will the Democrats be asking for that money back? Because he gave a lot of money to the Democrats,” Trump added.

Clinton’s political connection to Weinstein, a major Democratic donor, came under intense scrutiny in 2017, when allegations of sexual misconduct by the then-Hollywood mega-producer came to light in a pair of exposés in The New Yorker and The New York Times. Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, later pledged to donate campaign contributions from Weinstein to charity.

In a Tuesday interview with Variety, Clinton said of the Weinstein verdict that “it was time for an accounting and the jury clearly found that.”

In 2017, shortly after accusations against Weinstein surfaced, Trump said he had known Weinstein “for a long time.”

“I’m not at all surprised to see it,” Trump said at the time.