California
The wife of California’s governor gives tearful testimony at Weinstein’s rape trial
On this courtroom artist sketch, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the spouse of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, takes the stand Monday on the trial of Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles.
Invoice Robles/AP
disguise caption
toggle caption
Invoice Robles/AP
On this courtroom artist sketch, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the spouse of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, takes the stand Monday on the trial of Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles.
Invoice Robles/AP
LOS ANGELES — Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the spouse of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, almost screamed by means of tears from the witness stand Monday when she instructed the courtroom Harvey Weinstein raped her in a resort room and spoke of the devastating impact it had on her within the 17 years since.
“He is aware of this isn’t regular!” she shouted in the course of the Los Angeles trial, recalling her ideas amid the alleged 2005 rape. “He is aware of this isn’t consent!”
She then shouted “Oh God!” as if overcome by the reminiscence, and gave in to the crying. Weinstein watched from the protection desk.
Siebel Newsom stated she discovered herself unexpectedly alone with Weinstein in a collection on the Peninsula Lodge in Beverly Hills, the place she had agreed to hitch him for a gathering. She stated she assumed others could be current and they’d speak about her profession.
When he emerged from the lavatory in a gown with nothing beneath and started groping her whereas he masturbated, she described her emotions.
“Horror! Horror!” she stated. “I am trembling. I am like a rock, I am frigid. That is my worst nightmare. I am simply this blow-up doll!”
She then gave a graphic description of a sexual assault and rape by Weinstein within the suite’s bed room.
A 23-year sentence and a trial with 11 extra counts
Weinstein’s legal professionals, who solely acquired to cross-examine her briefly and can proceed on Tuesday, say the 2 had consensual intercourse and that she was in search of to make use of the highly effective producer to advance her profession.
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a rape conviction in New York, and has pleaded not responsible to 11 counts of rape and sexual assault in California involving 5 ladies.
Siebel Newsom is the fourth girl Weinstein is accused of sexually assaulting who has taken the stand in Los Angeles. Her testimony was probably the most dramatic and emotional to date within the three-week trial. She cried all through her 2 1/2 hours on the stand, starting with when she was requested to establish the 70-year-old Weinstein for the report.
“He is sporting a go well with, and a blue tie, and he is observing me,” she stated as tears started to circulate.
Now 48, Siebel Newsom described how Weinstein first approached her to introduce himself on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant in 2005. On the time, she was a producer and actor with just a few small roles, and he was on the top of his Hollywood energy.
“It felt just like the Pink Sea was parting,” she stated as she watched others within the room make method for him. “I do not know if it was deference or concern.”
However she stated after they had a drink later within the day he was “charming” and confirmed “a real curiosity in speaking about my work.”
He was within the Los Angeles space just a few weeks later, stopping by her dwelling throughout a small get together to drop off a present and alluring her to the resort assembly.
‘I did not know the right way to escape’
She described how nervous she was after being directed to his resort suite. Requested by Deputy District Lawyer Marlene Martinez why she did not stroll away, she stated: “Since you do not say no to Harvey Weinstein.”
“He might make or wreck your profession,” she stated.
Afterward, she stated she felt “a lot disgrace.”
“I used to be so violated and I do not understand how that occurred,” she stated, sobbing. “I did not see the clues and I did not know the right way to escape.”
Siebel Newsom is called Jane Doe #4 on the trial, and just like the others Weinstein is charged with raping or sexually assaulting, her identify will not be being spoken in courtroom. However each the prosecution and the protection have recognized her because the governor’s spouse in the course of the trial, and Siebel Newsom’s lawyer confirmed to The Related Press and different information shops that she is Jane Doe #4.
The AP doesn’t sometimes identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they’ve come ahead publicly.
Weinstein has had many well-known accusers, together with A-list actors, since he turned a magnet for the #MeToo motion in 2017. However not one of the ladies telling their tales on the trial have had anyplace close to the prominence of Siebel Newsom — partner of the person who final week sailed to a second time period as governor of the nation’s most populous state, and should make a run for the White Home. The governor was not within the courtroom Monday.
Throughout cross-examination, Weinstein lawyer Mark Werksman pressed Siebel Newsom repeatedly about when she instructed her husband concerning the assault, mentioning in a transcript of a 2020 interview with prosecutors that she stated Newsom was “possibly” the primary particular person she instructed. The lawyer was the primary to say the identify “Gavin Newsom” in the course of the testimony, and repeated it typically.
She stated she “dropped hints alongside the way in which” by means of the years after assembly him when he was San Francisco mayor. And he acquired the total account when ladies’s tales about Weinstein turned widespread in 2017. He would return former political donations from Weinstein then.
The influence of trauma
Werksman urged that the couple sought the donations from Weinstein at a time when Newsom will need to have recognized her story.
He took cash “from anyone you hinted had accomplished one thing despicable to you?” Werksman requested.
“It is complicated,” Siebel Newsom responded.
“Effectively is that simply politics,” Werksman requested, “that you just simply take cash from somebody who has accomplished one thing despicable to your spouse except everyone finds out about it?”
Siebel Newsom denied the suggestion from Werksman that new components of the alleged assault that she had not described in interviews with prosecutors or grand jury testimony got here up for the primary time in her testimony Tuesday.
He stated he wished to know why her story modified.
“All of us heard you being very emotional,” he stated. “You’ve got had plenty of time to consider it previously 17 years.”
Siebel Newsom stated she had spent a lot of that point making an attempt not to consider it.
“It’s extremely traumatic, sir,” she stated.