Speaking quickly and frequently through tears, almost shouting at points, California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife took the stand in Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles rape trial on Monday afternoon to describe how the disgraced mogul had allegedly assaulted her in a hotel room.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a 48-year-old former documentary filmmaker and actress, testified that she thought she had been invited to Weinstein’s suite at the Peninsula Hotel in 2005 under the impression that they were going to discuss her career.
Once there, however, it was only a few minutes before the mega-producer, seeming “anxious and harried,” retreated to the bathroom, explaining he was going to get “more comfortable.” Siebel Newsom, who said she was “thrown off” and “confused” by the grandness of the surroundings and Weinstein’s erratic manner, testified that she had no idea at that point that she was in any danger.
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As she described how Weinstein had called out for help from the bathroom, Siebel Newsom started crying harder. She told the court that she went into the bathroom to find Weinstein touching himself under a bathrobe he had changed into. As he reached out to grab her, Siebel Newsom said, she backed away, kicking off a game of “cat-and-mouse” in which the producer seemed to switch between aggression and tenderness, alternating between threatening her and telling her stories about his childhood and his ex-wife.
Eventually exhausted by the “mental jiujitsu” of trying to defend herself, Siebel Newsom alleged that she found herself either being dragged or carried over to the bed, she recalled, however could not be clear on which.
And then: “Horror. Horror. I’m trembling, I’m like a rock, I’m frigid,” she said through audible sobs. “This is my worst nightmare. I’m just this blow-up doll that he’s just trying to masturbate off of.”
Though Weinstein initially had trouble penetrating her with his penis, which was “so weird and messed-up,” according to the governor’s wife, he eventually succeeded in ejaculating. He also digitally penetrated and orally assaulted her, Siebel Newsom claimed.
After he was done, Siebel Newsom was focused on getting “the fuck out of there,” she said, even as Weinstein allegedly began waxing poetic about being “boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“I just thought I was going to throw up,” she said, adding that the producer already seemed fixated on “controlling the narrative” of the assault.
Siebel Newsom ran into Weinstein several more times in the ensuing years at industry events, cordial and short encounters that invariably left her “triggered,” as she put it on the stand. “He’s scary and he totally, like, robbed a piece of me,” she said. “He destroyed me emotionally and physically. It made being in the entertainment industry really hard.”
Siebel Newsom’s harrowing afternoon testimony came after she spent roughly 15 minutes on the stand on Monday morning, an appearance that was marked by a near-immediate flood of tears as she was asked to point out the man she has accused of sexually assaulting her.
Taking the stand and admitting she felt “a little nervous,” Siebel Newsom had told prosecution attorney Marlene Martinez that she first met Weinstein during the Toronto Film Festival more than 15 years ago. When Martinez asked if the governor’s wife saw “that person” in the room with them, Siebel Newsom began crying.
“Yes,” she replied, according to pool reports from the courtroom. “He’s wearing a suit, and a blue tie, and he’s staring at me.”
Siebel Newsom went on to say her first meeting with Weinstein—in Sept. 2005, well before she met her now-husband—happened in a hotel as she was huddling with some industry friends. At the time, she was a working actress who had done some “small roles” in some television shows and a couple of movies, she testified.
Weinstein, on the other hand, was a “kingmaker” and “at the top of the industry,” Siebel Newsom said. As the mogul approached her “everybody sort of like backed away,” she recalled, adding that it “felt like the Red Sea was parting.”
“He wanted to know who I was, what my name was, why I was there,” Siebel Newsom said. “...I felt a bit intimidated. He was charming. He treated me initially like he was really curious about me. Maybe flattered is how I felt?”
On Monday afternoon, Siebel Newsom went into more detail on how their relationship evolved prior to the 2005 assault, describing how Weinstein showed up at her home “in a big black SUV” to give her a book on producer (and alleged sexual predator) Louis B. Mayer.
Weinstein hung around for a few minutes, Siebel Newsom testified, but she was in the middle of a get-together with some friends. “It was very awkward,” she said. “He was looking around. It was weird energy.” Before he left, the producer promised to continue the conversation about her projects. The invitation to his hotel suite materialized shortly after.
Siebel Newsom is one of five women expected to take the stand in this latest trial to accuse Weinstein of sexually assaulting them. Identified previously only as Jane Doe #4, Siebel Newsom came forward publicly on Oct. 10 in a statement through her attorney. “Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at a purported business meeting that turned out to be a trap,” lawyer Elizabeth Fegan said.
“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’s lawyers have argued that the disgraced producer did not sexually assault Siebel Newsom, but rather had “consensual,” “transactional” sex with her in exchange for helping her career. In his opening statement last month, defense attorney Mark Werkman called Siebel Newsom “just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood.”
Around that time, Weinstein’s team locked horns with the prosecution over the potential introduction of a 2007 email from Siebel Newsom to Weinstein, asking for advice on media relations in the wake of revelations that her then-boyfriend, Gavin Newsom, had had an affair with a married aide while in office as San Francisco’s mayor.
Judge Lisa Lench granted curtailed permission to the defense to introduce the email in court, forbidding them from discussing the story behind the message. She explained that the affair was “too tangential in relation to this trial.”
On Monday afternoon, the prosecution introduced the email preemptively, asking Siebel Newsom why she’d reached out to Weinstein. She explained that she’d believed Weinstein “understood how to handle the press, and thought he could be helpful.”
Weinstein, now 70, is already serving a 23-year sentence after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in New York in 2020. In Los Angeles County, he faces four counts of rape, four counts of forcible oral copulation, one count of sexual penetration by use of force, one count of sexual battery by restraint and sexual battery in incidents ranging from 2004 to 2013. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Siebel Newsom is expected to return to the stand on Tuesday morning for further cross-examination from Weinstein’s lawyers.
