Harvey Weinstein ‘raped wife of California governor after luring her to hotel’
Harvey Weinstein raped the future first lady of California after luring her to his hotel bedroom for a supposed business meeting and then told her she would “feel better” after his attack, a court has been told.
Deputy district attorney Paul Thompson said Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California governor Gavin Newsom, was one of several women attacked by Weinstein who will testify against the disgraced Hollywood producer at his trial in Los Angeles.
He said each had given similar accounts of being cornered in hotel rooms and forced into sexual encounters when they were young and aspiring.
Weinstein, 70, who is already serving a 23-year sentence following his conviction in New York for sexual assaults including rape, is facing 11 further sex charges in the new Los Angeles trial. He denies the charges, claiming all of the encounters were consensual, with his lawyer saying Weinstein’s accusers had willingly taken advantage of Hollywood’s “casting couch” culture by having “transactional sex” because of his power.
But Mr Thompson said Ms Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and former actress who married the future governor in 2008, had been a “powerless actor trying to make her way in Hollywood” when she met Weinstein in 2005 and was invited to his suite at a Beverly Hills hotel to “discuss her career”.
