Gavin Newsom’s wife bursts into tears at Weinstein trial: ‘He’s staring at me’

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife entered Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial in Los Angeles on Monday and burst into tears almost immediately when asked to point out the man she had accused of sexually assaulting her twice.

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a 48-year-old former actress and producer, admitted to prosecutor Marlene Martinez that she was “a little nervous” about testifying. Newsom told the court that she first met Weinstein more than 15 years ago during the Toronto Film Festival.

“Do you see this person in court today?” Martinez asked, causing Newsom to burst into tears.

“Yes,” she replied, according to reports from the courtroom. “He’s wearing a suit and a blue tie and he’s staring at me.”

Newsom said their first meeting — in September 2005, well before she met her now-husband — was at a hotel while huddled with some industry friends. At the time, she was a working actress who had played a few “small roles” in a few TV shows and a few films, she testified.

Weinstein, on the other hand, is a “kingmaker” and “at the forefront of the industry,” Newsom said. When the mogul approached her, “everybody kind of backed off,” she recalled, adding that it “felt like the Red Sea was parting.”

“He wanted to know who I am, what my name is, why I’m there,” Newsom said. “…I felt a bit intimidated. He was charming. He initially treated me like he was genuinely curious about me. Maybe I was flattered?”

Weinstein told her he wanted to meet her again, and they later hooked up at the hotel bar. “I felt like there was a real interest in talking about my work,” Newsom, who said she brought a friend to the meeting, told the court.

A lunch break was called shortly after her brief testimony, with the governor’s wife scheduled to continue her testimony later on Monday. She is one of five women expected to take a stand in this latest trial to accuse Weinstein of sexual assault.

Through her attorney, Newsom revealed on October 10 that she was the woman referred to only as Jane Doe #4 at trial. “Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at an alleged business meeting, which turned out to be a trap,” attorney Elizabeth Fegan said in a statement at the time.

“She intends to testify at his trial to seek some degree of justice for survivors and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women.”

Weinstein’s attorneys have argued that the disgraced producer did not sexually assault Newsom but instead had “consensual,” “transactional” sex with her to further her career. In his opening remarks last month, defense attorney Mark Werkman called Newsom “just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood.”

Said Fegan diversity shortly thereafter, she found Werkman’s words offensive. “The use of adjectives like ‘Bimbo’ and other over-the-top words to describe the elements reflects to me that Harvey doesn’t have any facts to support his defense,” she said, “so they’re going to try and win based on drama and.” Attacking the victims, as opposed to based on evidence.”

The potential introduction of a 2007 email from Newsom to Weinstein as evidence caught the attention of the defense and prosecutors in late October. The email, a request for advice on dealing with the media, was sent after it was revealed that Governor Newsom had an affair with a married aide in 2005 while he was mayor of San Francisco. (The Newsoms didn’t start dating until 2006.)

Judge Lisa Lench gave the defense limited permission to bring the email to court, barring them from discussing the story behind the message. She explained that the affair was “too tangential in relation to this process.”

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 forced oral copulation, and one count of sexual assault versus entry by use of force, one count of sexual assault by restraint, and one count of sexual assault on incidents from 2004 to 2013.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial is expected to run through the end of the month before turning over to the jury for deliberation.