California governor’s wife among accusers at Harvey Weinstein’s LA trial
- Harvey Weinstein faces 11 counts of sexual assault in Los Angeles trial, stemming from allegations made by five women
- The disgraced Hollywood movie mogul is already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York for sex crimes
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and actor who is married to California Governor Gavin Newsom, is among the accusers of Harvey Weinstein who will testify at his rape and sexual assault trial that began Monday, her lawyer said.
“Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at a purported business meeting that turned out to be a trap,” Newsom’s lawyer Elizabeth Fegan said in a statement. “She intends to testify at his trial in order to seek some measure of justice for survivors, and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women.”
Weinstein, the 70-year-old former movie mogul who is serving a 23-year prison sentence after a conviction in New York, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of rape and sexual assault involving Newsom and four other women.
All of them will testify as Jane Doe during the eight-week trial in a Los Angeles court, where jury selection began Monday.
Newsom, 48, appeared in small roles in dozens of films and television shows between 2002 and 2011. Recently she has directed documentaries including The Great American Lie in 2020 and Fair Play from this year. Both deal with gender in society.
She wrote about her experience with Weinstein in a 2017 essay in the Huffington Post after The New York Times and New Yorker stories made him a magnet of the #MeToo movement, but gave few details.
