Jennifer Sebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker, actress and wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, has joined the list of prosecutors for convicted sex-crime mogul Harvey Weinstein, who will testify in the “rape and sexual assault” trial that began Monday.
“Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at an alleged business meeting that turned out to be a trap,” Newsom’s attorney, Elizabeth Fegan, said in a statement.
She said she plans to testify at his trial “in order to seek a measure of justice for the survivors, and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women.”
Weinstein, the 70-year-old former movie mogul who is serving a 23-year prison sentence following his conviction in New York, has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of “rape and sexual assault” that included Newsom and four other women.
Women will testify anonymously during the eight-week trial in a Los Angeles courthouse, where jury selection began, Monday.
The Associated Press does not usually name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, but Newsom has agreed to release her name through her attorney.
News of her participation was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Newsom, 48, appeared in small roles in dozens of films and TV shows between 2002 and 2011.
She has recently directed documentaries including “The Great American Lie” in 2020, and “Fair Play” this year. Both deal with gender.
She wrote regarding her experience with Weinstein in a 2017 article in the Huffington Post, but gave few details.
Weinstein, who is being held in a Los Angeles County Jail, brought the two into court in a wheelchair through a side door, and carefully climbed it to a seat next to one of his lawyers at the defense table.
It will allow the prosecution to present parts of Weinstein’s conviction of “rape and sexual assault” as evidence.
The trial comes five years following women’s stories regarding Weinstein launched the #MeToo movement.
Weinstein was charged with four counts of “rape” and seven counts of “sexual assault.”
Most of the incidents in his indictment, like Newsom, occurred under the guise of business meetings at luxury hotels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, which Weinstein used as his California headquarters during award season year-round.
Four of them happened during the week of the 2013 Academy Awards.
