Ashley Judd, Tarana Burke, more react to Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction

Famous figures in entertainment, activism, and politics are speaking out in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction.

Following Monday’s news that a jury found the former movie mogul guilty on two of five potential counts — committing a criminal sex act in the first degree and rape in the third degree — actress Ashley Judd, who previously accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, thanked those who told their stories to jurors in the courtroom.

“For the women who testified in this case, and walked through traumatic hell, you did a public service to girls and women everywhere,” Judd tweeted after news broke that Weinstein would be held in jail for 16 days until his March 11 sentencing date. “Thank you.”

Though #MeToo founder Tarana Burke said the verdict wasn’t her “personal victory,” through a written statement she stressed that “this case reminds us that sexual violence thrives on unchecked power and privilege,” and its “implications reverberate far beyond Hollywood and into the daily lives of all of us in the rest of the world.”

She continued: “Though today a man has been found guilty, we have to wonder whether anyone will care about the rest of us tomorrow. This is why we say #MeToo.”

Weinstein was further acquitted on two charges of predatory sexual assault — including one based on allegations from Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra — as well as rape in the first degree. Still, actress Ellen Barkin noted that “Harvey Weinstein is a convicted rapist. No matter how hard the defense might try, he will remain a convicted rapist til the day he dies.”

Time’s Up president and CEO Tina Tchen also spoke on the verdict, stating that it “marks a new era of justice” for “all survivors of harassment, abuse, and assault at work.” She went on to praise accusers Sciorra, Miriam Haley, Jessica Mann, Dawn Dunning, Tarale Wulff, and Lauren Young before stressing her stance in solidarity with all assault survivors.

The Oscar-winning former head of The Weinstein Company and the subject of dozens of sexual harassment and assault claims initially faced five total counts in New York: two for predatory sexual assault, one for first-degree rape, one for third-degree rape, and one for a criminal sex act. The charges resulted from accusations that Weinstein raped Mann in a New York City hotel room in 2013, raped Sciorra at her apartment in the mid-’90s, and performed oral sex on Haley, who was a production assistant on Project Runway, of which The Weinstein Company was a producer, at his apartment in 2006.

Weinstein still faces sex crime charges in Los Angeles after one woman claimed he raped her and another alleged he sexually assaulted her over a two-day period in 2013.

Read on for more celebrity reactions to the Weinstein verdict.

Related content:

• Harvey Weinstein found guilty of third-degree rape, criminal sex act in New York trial
• Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra testifies Harvey Weinstein raped her
• The Assistant is not just about Harvey Weinstein, says star Julia Garner and director Kitty Green