Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, broke down in tears as she told a jury how Harvey Weinstein raped her at the Toronto Film Festival in 2005.
Asked in court to describe the disgraced movie mogul’s body, specifically his genitals, the first lady of California used the words ‘distorted’ and ‘fish like.’ The unsavory description is consistent with others from women who have accused Weinstein of sexual assault.
‘Looked uncircumcised and strange though, kind of fish like, the penis, something was distorted in the testicles… Lots of skin, lots of skin down there,’ Siebel Newsom said when asked by Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez to describe her rapist’s physique.
She added that he had ‘lots of bruises, markings, yellow and green, lots of stretch marks on his belly, very not physically fit at all.’
Aspiring actress Jessica Mann testified in 2020 that Weinstein appeared so abnormal that she felt ‘compassion’ for the man on trial for sexually assaulting her. What she saw was Fournier’s gangrene, ‘an acute infection of the genital region’ that affects ‘diabetics and middle-aged men’ – Weinstein was both.
Siebel Newsom, 48, explained on the stand in the downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Monday how the Hollywood kingmaker ‘zeroed’ in on her years ago at the Canadian film festival. She is the fourth woman Weinstein is accused of sexually assaulting to testify.
When Prosecutor Marlene Martinez asked Siebel Newsom if she saw the person in court who she met in 2005, she went silent then burst into tears before managing to mutter ‘yes’ into the microphone.
‘Yes, he’s wearing a suit, and a blue tie, and he’s staring at me,’ she said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom (pictured here in 2019), took the stand at the Los Angeles rape trial of Harvey Weinstein on Monday
Siebel Newsom, who is a documentary filmmaker, described to the court the first time she met Weinstein, back when she was an actress and producer.
She recalled him being ‘charming’ and ‘really focused on telling me I was special and I was different.’
During the trial’s opening statements, Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson said Siebel Newsom was ‘a powerless actor trying to make her way in Hollywood’ in 2005 when Weinstein raped her during what she thought was going to be a meeting to discuss her career at a Beverly Hills hotel.
Weinstein’s lawyers say the two had consensual sex and that she sought to use the powerful producer to advance her career.
Already serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York, Weinstein, 70, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape and seven counts of sexual assault involving five women. He has denied ever engaging in non-consensual sex.
Siebel Newsom alleges that Weinstein raped her in 2005, when she was an actress. It was three years before she married Newsom
Siebel Newsom is known as Jane Doe #4 at the trial, and like the others Weinstein is charged with raping or sexually assaulting, her name is not being spoken in court.
Weinstein has had many famous accusers, including A-list actors, since he became a magnet for the #MeToo movement in 2017.
But none of the women telling their stories at the Los Angeles trial have had anywhere near the prominence of Siebel Newsom, first partner to the man who last week sailed to a second term as governor of the nation’s most populous state and may make a run for the White House.
On Monday, Siebel Newsom took the stand wearing a blue dress and camel-colored coat that she took off before getting settled in her seat and describing to the court her first meeting with Weinstein, which took place in 2005 at the Toronto Film Festival.
‘He was like the kingmaker, he was the top of the industry,’ she said. ‘I was a working actress, I had little roles, guest-starring roles on TV shows and films, and I was working on some short films, I’d been in two features … but they were small roles.’
‘Yes, Harvey Weinstein was more powerful than me,’ she added.
Siebel Newsom went on to tell the court that she was in a hotel with friends who worked in the industry when Weinstein made his way over to her.
‘Something kind of happened and there was this big person coming toward me, and everybody sort of like backed away,’ she said. ‘Then Harvey Weinstein introduced himself to me.’
Siebel Newsom was not with her now-husband at the time, but confirmed to the court that she was in another relationship.
She continued on about her first meeting with Weinstein: ‘He came directly to me and people sort of backed off. He wanted to know who I was, what my name was, why I was there.’
‘It felt like the red sea was parting. I don’t know if it was deference or fear.’
‘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?’
She said that Weinstein told her he wanted to meet up with her later.
‘I felt like I had to, like ‘OK, sure.’
‘I felt like there was a genuine interest in talking about my work.’
Siebel Newsom said she met up with him again at the hotel bar, adding that she felt like he was focused very much on her and not on her friend.
‘One thing that was interesting is that he was very charming. He saw that I was smart, even though I clearly can’t do math anymore.’
‘He was really focused on telling me I was special and I was different.’
Siebel Newsom pictured here with husband Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019, described to the court on Monday her first meeting with Weinstein in 2005 at the Toronto Film Festival
Newsom, pictured in 2011, is the fourth of the women Weinstein is accused of assaulting to testify at his Los Angeles trial
At the start of the trial, Siebel 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 attorney Mark Werksman told jurors during opening statements that Siebel Newsom ‘a very prominent citizen of California’ who has made herself ‘a prominent victim in the #MeToo movement.’
‘Otherwise,’ Werksman said, ‘she´d be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood.’
Actor Daphne Zuniga, star of ‘Spaceballs’ and ‘Melrose Place,’ testified about her friend at the trial last week.
Zuniga said she and Siebel Newsom were on a hike when she told her she’d had a meeting with Harvey Weinstein. When asked how it went, Zuniga said Siebel Newsom told her ‘not good, I don’t want to talk about.’
‘I always had known her to be positive, upbeat, looks you in the eye, lovely energy,’ Zuniga said, but here ‘she seemed upset, squirmy, agitated.’
Prosecutors said that – in a pattern described by many other Weinstein accusers – Siebel Newsom had expected they would be meeting in a public space with others in attendance, but instead found herself alone with him in his suite.
Judge Lisa Lench is allowing the defense to use an email Siebel Newsom sent to Weinstein in 2007 asking him for help in dealing with the media surrounding a scandal involving her husband, who was mayor of San Francisco at the time.