After years of trauma and horror, Weinstein’s victims finally received justice as the powerful Hollywood producer was found guilty of rape and sexual assault.

Weinstein’s downfall from being a glamorous studio boss, with a huge political influence, to a convicted rapist being led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, might be at times unnerving—even a little surreal. The verdict came out after five days of deliberation with a jury composed of seven men and five women.

Among the list of charges, Weinstein was found guilty of a criminal sex act in the first degree for forcing oral sex on Miriam Haley, a former Project Runaway production assistant in 2006. Weinstein is expected to carry a sentence ranging from 5-25 years imprisonment. The producer was also found guilty of rape in the third degree, for raping a woman in a New York Hotel in 2013. While the maximum prison sentence will only be up to 4 years, Weinstein is required to be registered as a sex offender.

However, the producer was acquitted from three further charges, two of those are the most serious counts of predatory sexual assault. If he had been proven guilty, the charges would have ensured that the producer would spend life behind bars.

The verdict came in after weeks of agonizing and times painful testimony from Weinstein’s victims with accusations of rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbation, and lewd propositions. A group of women, called the Silence Breakers, expressed their disappointment over Weinstein’s acquittal from the predatory sexual assault. In their statement, the group wrote: “While it is disappointing that today’s outcome does not deliver the true, full justice that so many women deserve, Harvey Weinstein will now forever be known as a convicted serial predator.” The statement continued, “This conviction would not be possible without the testimony of the courageous women and the many women who have spoken out. Despite intimidation from Weinstein’s legal team, they courageously shared their stories with the jury, the courtroom and the world. This has been a flawed process from the beginning but has further exposed the difficulties women face in coming forward to tell the truth about powerful abusers.” Finally, the statement read, “Their bravery will forever be remembered in history. Our fight is far from over. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has brought charges against Weinstein and we hope he will be met with swift justice. As we have said from our very first statement together as Silence Breakers: we refuse to be silenced and will continue to speak out until this unrepentant abuser is brought to justice.”

In response to the verdict, Weinstein’s attorney Arthur Aidala reportedly told a group of journalists outside of the courthouse, “The words he said over and over again to me is, ‘I’m innocent, I’m innocent, I’m innocent. How could this happen in America?’”

Before his conviction, Weinstein had boasted strong political connections. In fact, during the entire ordeal, several high-profile political figures and media moguls were dragged along with the accusations.

The producer was also known to be a loyal Democratic supporter. Going all the way to giving $10,000 to Bill Clinton’s legal defense to fund the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Weinstein had also donated a whopping $250,000 to the Clinton foundation.

Moreover, even New York Governor Andrew Cuomo received more than $60,000 in donations while Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Cory Booker (D-NJ), had also received charitable donations from the convicted rapist.

In a column for the New York Post, Maureen Callahan wrote: “And Weinstein, in vacillating between predator and benefactor, played right into that destabilizing dynamic, one in which his targets could never be sure he was truly a bad guy.”

Callahan added, “If there’s something to be gained from all this collective pain—the courtroom heard Mann’s wails even after she was removed from court during her panic attack—it’s this: We now have a much more dimensional, sympathetic and true understanding of how victims of sexual assault behave. We are now more likely to believe them, even when it would be easier to dismiss such paradoxes.”