In their opening statements Monday for his Los Angeles criminal trial, attorneys for Harvey Weinstein argued that the women accusing their client of rape and sexual assault were participating in a culture of “transactional sex” that was commonplace in Hollywood before the #MeToo movement.
They also targeted California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who is expected to testify that Weinstein raped her more than a decade ago. They said if she wasn’t married to the governor of California, “she’d be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood,” according to multiple reports.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom is among the witnesses previously known only as “Jane Doe” who are expected to testify that the former Miramax boss raped or assaulted them. California’s first lady has alleged that around 2005, she met Weinstein at The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hill for what she thought was a business meeting.
But, she has alleged, Weinstein ended up forcing himself on her in a hotel suite.
On Monday, Weinstein’s legal team sought to portray the women — some of whom are represented by Gloria Allred — as opportunists who had sex with Weinstein to further their Hollywood careers.
“Look at my client,” Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman told the jury, according to a Variety report. “He’s not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. Do you think these beautiful women had sex with him because he’s hot? No, it’s because he’s powerful.”
“Transactional sex … it may have been unpleasant … and now embarrassing,” Werksman said. “[But] everyone did it. He did it. They did it.”
Werksman reportedly told the jury Siebel Newsom has claimed she faked an orgasm to end the assault quickly, saying there is no more “enthusiastic signal of consent” than “yes, yes, yes,” which is why “Mr. Weinstein believed she consented.”
As Breitbart News reported, Harvey Weinstein was convicted in 2020 of rape and sexual assault in his New York criminal trial, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison. If convicted in the L.A. trial, he could end up spending his remaining years in jail.
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