A Mexican model and actress is set to take the stand in Harvey Weinstein’s sex-crimes trial on Wednesday—to face allegations she lured and trapped one of the topped titan’s accusers into a Beverly Hills hotel in 2013.
On Monday, a woman identified in court as Jane Doe 2 told Los Angeles Superior court jurors that she was invited to the Montague Hotel in February 2013 by Claudia Salinas under the guise of meeting Weinstein to discuss a script she had been working on. Instead, Jane Doe 2 alleges that Salinas trapped her and Weinstein in a bathroom, where he groped her and masturbated in front of her.
“This was a girl that I thought was my new friend,” Jane Doe 2 told the jury on Monday as she described how Salinas allegedly closed the bathroom door behind her and Weinstein. “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.”
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After the assault and Weinstein’s ejaculation onto the floor, Jane Doe 2 said she “saw Claudia Salinas” as she quickly exited the bathroom door.
“I shot her an evil look. She didn’t say anything. She looked at me. She had this evil look. Like a smirk. Like she roped me in on something,” Jane Doe 2 added on Tuesday.
But jurors preceding over Weinstein’s second sex-crimes trials are expected to hear Salinas’ side of the story on Wednesday—after prosecutors indicated that she will be a government’s witness. After court on Tuesday, prosecutors revealed to Judge Lisa Lench their intention to call Salinas to testify but that her lawyers want her to invoke her fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.
Assistant District Attorney Paul Thompson noted the Salinas has previously denied Jane Doe 2’s claims in New York—where she testified on behalf of the defense. In the New York trial, where Weinstein was convicted of several sex-crimes, Jane Doe 2 was an uncharged witness called to the stand to help prosecutors establish Weinstein’s pattern of predatory behavior.
Thompson noted that Salinas’ testimony in New York was not incriminating in any way, and that he has indicated to the Mexican model’s lawyer that he has no intention of charging Salinas as an accomplice to Weinstein’s alleged crimes.
“I can’t say that he’s going to speak for every future prosecutor,” Salinas’ attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said.
“If we were going to charge her we would have charged her by now,” Thompson added, prompting the lawyers to agree that Salinas would be summoned back to court to testify on Wednesday.
Claudia Salinas is questioned by lawyer Damon Cheronis during the Weinstein sexual assault trial at New York Criminal Court in New York on February 10, 2020 in this courtroom sketch.
Jane Rosenberg/ReutersWhile it is not immediately clear what Salinas will say on the stand, the model candidly told a New York jury that she never shut the door behind Jane Doe 2. She said that while the meeting that the Montague did occur, she insists they never went into Weinstein’s suite.
“That never happened,” Salinas testified in 2020. “If I had done that, I would remember that. I would never close the door behind anybody, ever.”
The model, however, admitted on the New York stand that she previously told authorities she did not know if Jane Doe 2 went to Weinstein’s hotel room after the trio met for drinks but stressed that if something did happen she was not present.
Salinas did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
