Tuesday 18 October 2022 05:16 AM Gavin Newsom's wife emailed Harvey Weinstein for help dealing with California ... trends now
Jurors in the trial of Harvey Weinstein will be allowed to hear that Gavin Newsom's wife Jennifer emailed the movie magnate for advice about dealing with the media amid a scandal involving Gavin Newsom two years after Weinstein allegedly raped and sexually assaulted her, a judge ruled on Monday.
The judge granted narrow permission to the defense to introduce evidence of the email sent to Weinstein in 2007, when Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco and was dating Siebel Newsom.
But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench forbid the defense from discussing the underlying issue behind the email - the revelation of an affair Newsom had had in 2005 with an aide.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom has confirmed that she is one of Weinstein's accusers and will testify at trial . Pictured in 2019
The couple are pictured years earlier at a San Francisco gala in 2010
Judge Lench called it 'too tangential in relation to this trial.'
Weinstein's attorney Mark Werksman argued adamantly for the inclusion of the details.
'Of all things you´d think a woman that is raped by Harvey Weinstein wouldn´t do, it's ask him how to deal with a sex scandal,' Werksman said.
Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez responded: 'I´m not sure how Mr. Werksman knows' how a rape victim would behave.
'They do not react in a matter how someone who has not been raped would think,' Martinez said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Lynn Siebel Newsom seen in September 2021
Siebel alleges that Weinstein raped her in 2005, when she was an actress. It was three years before she married Newsom
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench has been deciding what evidence will be allowed to be presented in court to the jury during the trial
Werksman argued that the contents of the email were essential, saying that for Siebel Newsom and the other accusers in the trial, the power dynamic with Weinstein was essential.
'When her boyfriend the mayor seduces an underling's wife and gets scandalized over it,' she sides with the mayor,' he said, and suggested it was essential to Weinstein's rights that the judge allow that line of questioning.
The judge suggested the attorney was overstating the case by saying Weinstein's due process was at stake.
'Very dramatic, Mr. Werksman,' Lench said.
Werksman replied, 'Forgive the melodrama your honor.'
Weinstein is charged with raping Siebel Newsom at a Beverly Hills hotel and forcing oral sex on her in 2004 or 2005.
Elizabeth Fegan, her attorney, said: 'Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at a purported business meeting that turned out to be a trap.
Vice President Kamala Harris waves with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom during a campaign event in September 2021
Newsom and his wife, left. She has never spoken at length about her experience with Weinstein but is expected to take the stand. Right, Siebel Newsom in the 2008 movie April Fools Day
'She intends to testify at his trial in order to seek some measure of justice for survivors, and as part of her life's work to improve the lives of women.'
Siebel Newsom first accused Weinstein of attacking her in a 2017
