The First Lady of California took the stand at a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday to testify against the notorious Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an actress and documentary filmmaker who is also the wife of California's recently-reelected governor Gavin Newsom, broke down in tears as she described how Weinstein had "zeroed" in on her more than 15 years ago.
Weinstein, 70, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape and seven counts of sexual assault involving five women in the Golden State.
He was previously found guilty of rape and sexual assault by the state of New York and sentenced to 23 years in prison. Weinstein is appealing that conviction, claiming that he has never engaged in non-consensual sex.
Ms Siebel Newsom, 48, is one of the most high-profile women to testify against Weinstein, a powerful filmmaker whose behaviour kickstarted the Me Too movement when it first came to widespread public attention in late 2017.
Prosecutors say that Weinstein raped Ms Siebel Newsom at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2005, when she was "a powerless actor trying to make her way in Hollywood".
Weinstein's lawyers claim that the sex was consensual and that Ms Siebel Newsom wanted to use their client to advance her career, at one point referring to her as a "bimbo".
During her 15 minutes on the stand in Los Angeles on Monday, Ms Siebel Newsom said she had first met Weinstein at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005, while she was among industry friends.
When a prosecutor asked her if she saw that person in court, Ms Siebel Newsom was reportedly silent for a moment and then burst into tears, before managing to mutter "yes" into the microphone.
Asked to describe him, she said: "He’s wearing a suit, and a blue tie, and he’s staring at me."
Ms Siebel Newsom is known as Jane Doe #4 within the confines of the trial, but has been publicly identified by her lawyers and by prosecutors outside the courtroom.
"He was like the kingmaker, he was the top of the industry," she told the court on Monday. "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 went on to describe how Weinstein's arrival made the people around her "back away... like the red sea was parting", adding: "I don't know if it was deference or fear."
She said: "He wanted to know who I was, what my name was, why I was there... 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?"
At Weinstein's request, Ms Siebel Newsom said, she met up with him again later at the hotel bar, where he quizzed her about her life with apparent interest.
"One thing that was interesting is that he was very charming," she told the court. "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."
Ms Siebel Newsom went on to tearfully recount how Weinstein allegedly raped her in 2005 at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.
“I’m standing. I’m resisting,” she said, per The New York Post. “Horror. I’m trembling. This is my worst nightmare. I’m just this blow-up doll that he’s just trying to masturbate off of.”
Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez then asked the witness to describe Weinstein’s physique, which prompted Ms Siebel Newsom to share that he was covered in “lots of bruises, markings, yellow and green, lots of stretch marks on his belly” and was “very not physically fit at all.”
“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,” she testified, adding that once in the hotel room he tried to “manipulate” and “threaten” her.
She alleged that Weinstein penetrated her genitals with both his fingers and penis, despite her putting her hand on his penis to “try to make him stop.”
In his opening remarks, Weinstein's attorney Mark Werksman told jurors that Ms Siebel Newsom was "a very prominent citizen of California" who has made herself "a prominent victim in the #MeToo movement", according to the Associated Press.
"Otherwise," he continued, "she’d be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood."
In a statement to Insider, Mr Werksman confirmed those remarks, saying: "[If she] doesn't characterize herself as a victim of rape, then she is just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood."
Elizabeth Fegan, a lawyer representing multiple Weinstein accusers including Ms Siebel Newsom, described that argument as "despicable" and "desperate".
The trial continues.
