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
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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 via tears from the witness stand Monday when she advised the courtroom Harvey Weinstein raped her in a lodge 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 throughout 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 mentioned she discovered herself unexpectedly alone with Weinstein in a set on the Peninsula Resort in Beverly Hills, the place she had agreed to affix him for a gathering. She mentioned she assumed others could be current and they’d discuss her profession.
When he emerged from the toilet in a gown with nothing beneath and started groping her whereas he masturbated, she described her emotions.
“Horror! Horror!” she mentioned. “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 looking for 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 up to now within the three-week trial. She cried all through her 2 1/2 hours on the stand, starting with when she was requested to determine the 70-year-old Weinstein for the report.
“He is sporting a swimsuit, and a blue tie, and he is watching me,” she mentioned as tears started to circulation.
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 Crimson Sea was parting,” she mentioned as she watched others within the room make approach for him. “I do not know if it was deference or worry.”
However she mentioned 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 a couple of weeks later, stopping by her dwelling throughout a small get together to drop off a present and alluring her to the lodge assembly.
‘I did not know methods to escape’
She described how nervous she was after being directed to his lodge suite. Requested by Deputy District Legal professional Marlene Martinez why she did not stroll away, she mentioned: “Since you do not say no to Harvey Weinstein.”
“He may make or smash your profession,” she mentioned.
Afterward, she mentioned she felt “a lot disgrace.”
“I used to be so violated and I do not understand how that occurred,” she mentioned, sobbing. “I did not see the clues and I did not know methods to escape.”
Siebel Newsom is named Jane Doe #4 on the trial, and just like the others Weinstein is charged with raping or sexually assaulting, her identify is just not being spoken in courtroom. However each the prosecution and the protection have recognized her because the governor’s spouse throughout 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 usually 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 wherever 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 will 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 advised her husband concerning the assault, mentioning in a transcript of a 2020 interview with prosecutors that she mentioned Newsom was “possibly” the primary particular person she advised. The lawyer was the primary to say the identify “Gavin Newsom” throughout the testimony, and repeated it usually.
She mentioned she “dropped hints alongside the way in which” via 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 affect of trauma
Werksman advised 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 carried out 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 carried out 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 mentioned he needed to know why her story modified.
“All of us heard you being very emotional,” he mentioned. “You’ve got had a number of time to consider it up to now 17 years.”
Siebel Newsom mentioned she had spent a lot of that point making an attempt not to consider it.
“It’s totally traumatic, sir,” she mentioned.
