Shortly after taking the stand Wednesday to testify for the prosecution in Harvey Weinstein’s ongoing sex-crimes trial, social media influencer Claudia Salinas strongly denied the claim that she aided the fallen mogul in his predatory behavior, an allegation leveled at her by one of his accusers.
“Harvey Weinstein was a business acquaintance, that’s all he ever was,” Salinas told The Daily Beast via text message Wednesday evening. “I certainly wasn’t asked to be drawn into either of his trials and it was the last place I wanted to be. Having said that, I consistently told the truth in both trials. Jane Doe 2’s allegations did not hold up under cross-examination because obviously they are fiction.”
The Mexican model and actress has now testified in both of Weinstein’s sex-crimes trials—each time denying that she lured and trapped one of the disgraced Hollywood producer’s accusers in a hotel bathroom in 2013. Earlier this week, a woman identified in court as Jane Doe 2 told Los Angeles Superior Court jurors that Salinas invited her to the Montague Hotel in February 2013 under the guise of meeting Weinstein to discuss future job opportunities.
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Instead, Jane Doe 2 alleges that she was brought up to Weinstein’s hotel room before Salinas trapped her inside a bathroom with the toppled titan. Once inside the bathroom, she said that Weinstein groped her and masturbated in front of her before ejaculating on the floor.
The allegations mirror those she made at Weinstein’s New York trial in 2020—where the now 70-year-old was convicted of similar sex crimes. In that trial, where Jane Doe 2 was an uncharged witness called to help prosecutors establish Weinstein’s predatory pattern, Salinas also denied the allegations when she testified on behalf of the defense.
“It’s my second and hopefully my last ever experience as a witness. It wasn’t exactly pleasant but I had to testify, I had to defend myself,” Salinas explained to the Beast. “My name was used in a disparaging way. Jane Doe 2’s fiction kept changing and damaging me.”
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to several charges against him, including rape, after prosecutors allege he sexually assaulted five women between 2003 and 2014. Prosecutors allege that for years, Weinstein used his influence in Hollywood to prey on young women—and ensure their silence. Weinstein’s defense, however, insists that these allegations are false and that these women knowingly have “transactional sex” with the former producer for their own career gain.
Salinas, who has not accused Weinstein of any wrongdoing, told jurors on Wednesday that she first met the former producer in 2003 while having dinner with her mother in New York.
The two maintained a connection and she noted that she even starred in a few of his films, including Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. Like Jane Doe 2, Salinas said she met the aspiring actress in 2012 and immediately hit it off.
“We became friends, Facebook friends. I don’t remember if we hung out,” Salinas said.
While she admitted that she remembered meeting with Jane Doe 2 at the Montage Hotel in February 2013, she insisted during cross-examination on Wednesday that she did not enter a hotel room or trap Jane Doe 2 inside a bathroom.
“Did you ever stand outside a bathroom while Mr. Weinstein raped someone inside?” defense attorney Mark Werksman asked Salinas.
“Absolutely not,” she replied.
But Jane Doe 2 emotionally told a different version of events to the jury, explaining how she was frozen with fear after Salinas allegedly trapped her inside the hotel room bathroom.
“This was a girl that I thought was my new friend,” Jane Doe 2 told the jury on Monday. “So she gave me this look while she closed the door…I just couldn’t believe that she would do that to me. To another girl. Because there’s a girl code. You don’t do that.”
After the assault, Jane Doe 2 said that she shot Salinas “an evil look” as she quickly excited the bathroom—and that the model did not say anything to her. She did, according to Jane Doe 2, “smirk..like she roped me in on something.”
