CNN
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Jennifer Siebel Newsom, award-winning filmmaker and wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, is set to testify in disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial in Los Angeles, her lawyers told CNN on Monday.
“Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein during an alleged business meeting that turned out to be a trap,” said Beth Fegan, one of Newsom’s attorneys.
“She intends to testify at her trial to seek some measure of justice for survivors and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women,” Fegan said.
Weinstein, 70, is set to stand trial again, more than two years after he was convicted of first-degree felony sex act and third-degree rape in New York and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
After being found guilty in New York, the once-powerful movie mogul was moved to Los Angeles, where he is serving his prison sentence.
In Los Angeles, Weinstein faces multiple sexual assault charges to which he pleaded not guilty last year, including four counts of rape, four counts of forced oral copulation, forcible sexual penetration and forced sexual assault. in incidents dating from 2004 to 2013.
Jury selection for Weinstein’s trial began Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Newsom will likely testify “on or around November 8,” but that could change as the schedule is fluid, attorney Mark Firmani said.
As the trial in Los Angeles is about to begin, Weinstein has maintained his innocence and has denied all allegations against him. In August, New York’s highest court agreed to hear his appeal challenging his 2020 conviction for sex crimes.
The allegations against Weinstein have helped fuel the global #MeToo movement, encouraging women around the world to speak out against sexual abuse.
Just a day after the New York Times published its explosive report on Weinstein in October 2017, Newsom wrote an opinion op-ed for the Huffington Post where she shared that she had had an experience very similar to the allegations reported by the Times.
“I was naive, new to the industry, and didn’t know how to handle his aggressive advances — invitations to work with a friend late at night at the Toronto Film Festival, and later an invitation to meet him at the about a role in The Peninsula Hotel, where the staff were present and then suddenly disappeared like clockwork, leaving me alone with this hugely powerful and intimidating Hollywood legend,” Newsom wrote.
Weinstein’s spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, declined to comment on Newsom’s allegation.
Siebel Newsom is a graduate of Stanford University and has written, directed and produced several documentaries, including “Miss Representation”, “The Mask You Live In” and “The Great American Lie”. While serving as California’s first partner, Siebel Newsom advocated for working mothers and spearheaded initiatives focused on closing the wage gap, among other efforts, and was involved in several social activism campaigns.