Weinstein to surrender to NYPD on charges of rape

Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul, is expected to turn himself in to the NYPD on Friday morning on charges that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex on him, a source familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Manhattan prosecutors will charge Weinstein with first- and third-degree rape in one case and first-degree sex act in a second case, the source said. Weinstein’s New York-based attorney, Benjamin Brafman, on Thursday declined to comment on whether his client would turn himself in.

The charges follow an avalanche of accusations against him that led women around the world, some of them famous and many of them not, to come forward with accounts of being sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men.

Those stories spawned the global #MeToo movement, and since then, the ground has shifted beneath men who for years benefited from a code of silence around their predatory behavior.

Mr. Weinstein, 66, had until recently seemed untouchable, harnessing his wealth and his influence in the movie industry to intimidate women out of speaking publicly and, only three years ago, withstand an investigation into groping allegations.