Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom, testifies that Harvey Weinstein raped her
CNN
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, took the stand in Harvey Weinsteins sexual assault trial in Los Angeles on Monday, at times breaking into tears while alleging he raped her in a hotel room in 2005.
She told the court she met the media mogul when she was 31 years old in 2005 while at a bar with other industry friends during the Toronto Film Festival. There was this big person coming towards me and it felt like everybody sort of backed away, she recalled, saying, It felt like the Red Sea was parting.
He then introduced himself to her and asked her to meet with him later to continue their talk because he had a meeting, she testified.
Defense attorney Mark Werksman said in his opening statement October 24 that Siebel Newsom had consensual sex with Weinstein because she wanted his help getting roles and producing films.
He took particular aim at her, attacking her credibility using crude language.
Shes made herself a prominent victim in the #MeToo movement
otherwise shed be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood, Werksman said.
On Monday, he spent some time focused on whether the governor who Siebel Newsom married in 2008 knew of the alleged rape at the time he accepted a campaign contributions from Weinstein. Siebel Newsom said she asked the campaign staff to ask Weinstein for money but Newsom returned the funds right away in October 2017 after figuring out something happened.