Jennifer Siebel Newsom was cross-examined in a Los Angeles courtroom on Tuesday over testimony in which she claimed she was raped by Harvey Weinstein in 2005.
Siebel Newsom is a documentarian and the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Weinstein’s attorney Mark Werksman asked Siebel Newsom, known as Jane Doe #4 in court documents, if she had confused the truth with her dreams after she said earlier she had “frequent nightmares” about her alleged rape after she met Weinstein at hotel room at the Peninsula in Beverly Hills.
She denied Werksman’s suggestion that she may have had a “difficult time actually discerning what happened in a nightmare and what actually happened in a bedroom at the Peninsula Hotel,” explaining that her testimony of the alleged attack had expanded recently as she allowed herself to remember the “painful” incident.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom testified this week that Harvey Weinstein raped her in 2005.
(Bill Robles via AP)
“As we’ve gotten closer to this, and it’s gotten more real, my need to clarify and be more detailed” has increased, Siebel Newsom said. “I had everything in a box, and I’ve been slowly sharing a little bit at a time, because this is so painful.”
Siebel Newsom gave some details of the alleged rape under oath for the first time in emotional testimony Monday.
Werksman claimed that she had consensual sex with Weinstein to help her career, pointing out that she stayed friendly with Weinstein after the alleged attack, something he claimed a rape victim wouldn’t do.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Gavin Newsom’s wife, is known as Jane Doe No. 4 in the Harvey Weinstein trial.
(Tim Mosenfelder)
He also said she didn’t make her lack of consent clear during the alleged attack.
On Monday, Siebel Newsom described the “horror” of allegedly finding herself unexpectedly alone with Weinstein in a hotel room meeting that was supposed to be about her career.
“I’m trembling. I’m like a rock, I’m frigid. This is my worst nightmare. I’m just this blow-up doll!” she testified through tears, saying the producer came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but a robe, then began to masturbate and grope her before raping her.
Harvey Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for rape in New York.
(Etienne Laurent/Pool Photo via AP, File)
She said when she initially told prosecutors and police about the alleged attack in 2020, she did it out of support for the other accusers, and she didn’t think it would lead to charges.
“I offered to talk to detectives initially to support other women, not to be up here on the witness stand,” she told Werksman.
Werksman asked, “You’re the wife of the governor of California at the time, and you’re about to meet with the police and a deputy DA and you didn’t think that the consequence of what you said was that you would be a victim in an indictment in a criminal indictment?”
She answered, “I honestly was just telling my truth and I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be. Siebel Newsom added she thought her accusations were beyond the statute of limitations. California eliminated the statute of limitations for rape cases in 2016.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSLETTER
Siebel Newsom’s attorney Elizabeth Fegan said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Tuesday: “Over the last several days my client, Jane Doe 4, took the very difficult and painful step to publicly recount her sexual assault at the hands of Harvey Weinstein. She knew that it might have been easier to keep the memory of her 2005 assault buried, but she could not. She felt an obligation to herself, her family and most important, to the women who came forward as well as the women unable to speak out publicly. Throughout her testimony she demonstrated tremendous strength and resolve in telling her truth and stood fast as Weinstein’s defense team ruthlessly tried to discredit her. Her courage in the face of these harrowing circumstances is admirable.”
On Monday, Siebel Newsom described the “horror” of allegedly finding herself unexpectedly alone with Weinstein in a hotel room meeting that was supposed to be about her career.
(Bill Robles via AP)
Weinstein is serving a 23-year sentence for rape in New York and has pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of rape and sexual assault by five women in Los Angeles. On Tuesday, the judge dismissed four of the 11 counts at the request of prosecutors.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Siebel Newsom was the last of four accusers to testify at the trial. A fifth woman, Jane Doe #5, did not testify and her charges involving forcible rape were dropped without explanation from prosecutors.
Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
