The wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom is among the accusers of Harvey Weinstein in his rape and sexual assault trial that began on Monday.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker, is among the accusers of Harvey Weinstein who will testify, her attorney 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 attorney, 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 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.
HARVEY WEINSTEIN’S LOS ANGELES SEX CRIMES TRIAL WON’T INCLUDE DARYL HANNAH, ROSE MCGOWAN
Weinstein, 70, is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence following a conviction in New York. Weinstein was granted permission to take his appeal of his 2020 sex crime conviction to the New York State Court of Appeals.
He was wheel-chaired into the Los Angeles courtroom on 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 after several stories made him a magnet of the #MeToo movement, but she gave few details. The trial comes five years after women’s stories about Weinstein made the #MeToo movement explode.
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Weinstein is charged with four counts of rape and seven other sexual assault counts.
Most of the incidents in his indictment, like Newsom’s, happened under the guise of business meetings at luxury hotels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, which Weinstein used as his California headquarters and where he could be seen during awards season and throughout the year.
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Four of them occurred during Oscars week 2013, when Weinstein releases “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Django Unchained” would win Academy Awards.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.